


Dimples of Venus

by 8Clarify8



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Fashion & Models, Character manipulation, Chloenette, DJWifi, F/F, F/M, Frenemies, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Gaslighting, Manipulation, Mental Abuse, adrigami
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:08:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 34,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23678905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/8Clarify8/pseuds/8Clarify8
Summary: Marinette Dupain-Cheng started an internship with the esteemed Agreste fashion line, starting work at their downtown Paris high rise building that was entirely just for the fashion brand. It's a dream come true for a fashion major, but there's a couple... mishaps along the way to completing her internship. Like, one Chloé Bourgeois for instance.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Kagami Tsurugi, Chloé Bourgeois/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 78
Kudos: 262





	1. Aphrodite

“So, here we are.”

Marinette’s eyes fluttered under her lashes as she took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. Confidence was key to making a good first impression, even if it was fake confidence. She lifted her chin up and looked towards the imposing building as it sat high above the rest of the skyline; it was all glass and reinforced steel, but it wasn’t just the towering metal that made her feel small.

It was the _name_ that went along with it. _Agreste_. Built in white bold letters and sat atop of the entryway that was more than two stories high, like a mouth ready to swallow her.

_Agreste_.

Marinette was ready for her first day, even though her ankles shook in her heels and her nails were biting into the soft flesh of her palm as she tried not to think about the trash fire that was her initial interview with the esteemed brand.

She strode in, black pants fit to her legs, red suede heels one of the only bold things about her outfit.

She tried to smile warmly to the two women who manned the front desk as she entered, holding tightly within her arms her sketchbook, all the papers she would need to prove the start of her internship and to grant her access to the rest of the building aside from the main entry area. Which was still grander than her family’s home.

She tried not to gaze too intently at one of the women, who was beautiful but gave a sneer at Marinette when she had come in originally for her interview; truly, and Marinette knew this, the woman wouldn’t remember her, but it was still an anxiety that gnawed at the back of her mind.

_Agreste_ . The white brand was on nearly every surface, like they didn’t want you to forget what an _honor_ it is to be in the building, to be graced by even the presence of the name.

“You can step over here.” A nasally voice said from behind the counter and Marinette blinked owlishly at the woman. The woman popped her gum and smacked her lips, rolling her hazel eyes. Her hair was a reddish brown and tied into a high ponytail behind her, bangs straight across her forehead.

“Dupain-Cheng, we don’t have all day.” Marinette stumbled into action, her shaky heels finally catching up with her as she took a tentative step around the desk and into a back room where there was a single blue screen setup connected to a camera. Marinette caught the woman’s name tag, Lila, on her smart and stylish blazer.

“Lila?” Marinette asked curiously as she sat down on the stool in front of the blue screen.

“Don’t... ever- call me that,” she snapped, turning the camera on and placing one hand on her hip. She looked over it and gave Marinette a frightful scowl.

“It’s… your name?” Marinette asked lamely. Lila rolled her eyes.

“ _Obviously_ , but _you_ don’t get the courtesy of calling me that.” She blew another large, pink bubble that popped with a harsh _snap_ , and snapped the picture.

“No do-overs,” she warned, waiting for the machine sitting on the shelving next to them to spit something out. “Here, it’s temporary.”

Marinette looked at the paper handed to her, a small card of her wide eyes and her crooked hat in black and white. Her heart sank a little more.

* * *

_“What are three things you like about yourself?” the interviewer asked, eyes hidden behind glasses as she wrote down Marinette’s information._

_The question caught her off guard, even if it was common. Sell yourself!_

_“Umm…” she berated herself at the sentence filler. “That’s a good question, can I have a moment to think about it?”_

_The woman in front of her, who had introduced herself as Nathalie, clicked her pen closed and nodded. They sat in silence for a moment, Marinette drumming her fingers nervously along her leg as she thought about what she liked about herself._

_And honestly, nothing came to mind._

_“I-I’m sorry, Nathalie. I don’t have an answer to that question.”_

_“No matter, unoriginality these days is nothing new. You’ve demonstrated skills in sewing so we’ve got positions for you regardless.”_

* * *

“Hey, get out.” Lila had the door propped open and crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t have all day and neither do you.”

“Oh, right. Thanks.” Marinette said lamely, holding her picture tightly in her hands as she left the room.

Lila closed the door harshly, still giving Marinette a frown as she passed by.

“Go on back.” Lila flipped her hair over her shoulder and went to stand behind the desk. Marinette stood rather dumbfounded, wondering what on earth she did to her. She turned to head farther into the building instead, fighting a frown and a scowl at her sudden bad mood. Interacting with Lila had left a rather bitter taste in Marinette’s mouth, like what she imagined battery acid to taste like.

She strode into the elevator, foot tapping in annoyance as she tried not to let Lila get under her skin.

“What floor?” Someone asked as she entered the elevator. Marinette was too caught up in her head, and it wasn’t until the elevator doors slid closed that she startled back to attention.

“Oh,” she blinked in confusion as she watched the numbers go up. “Sorry, can you press 8 for me?” She looked up at the man who was in the elevator with her curiously. He was young like her, but with a well-manicured appearance. His hair was a bright gold, short on the sides, with the slight longer top that seemed popular these days. He was wearing a white leather jacket and black undershirt with a rainbow pattern across the front of it, a golden watch peeking from under the sleeves. His pants looked like well worn jeans.

“8? Sure thing, got something you need to talk with Nathalie about?” he asked her conversationally. Marinette nodded and smiled easily, starting to relax and put the previous awful interaction behind her.

“Yeah actually, I’m new here. Impressive you know all the floors; I’m guessing you work here too?”

He chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. “Something like that, I just know the building really well.”

She stuck her hand out and smiled at his confused stare. “Hi, I’m Marinette.”

“I’m Adrien.” He smiled in return. “It’s nice to meet you, Marinette. I hope you enjoy your time here and that we’ll be seeing each other around.”

“I hope so too, although I’m in the alterations department so I’m not sure how much I’ll be getting out and meeting people.” She laughed softly, bringing her hand to cover her mouth lightly.

“Well luckily for me, we may actually be seeing each other a decent amount.” He commented off-handedly. “It’ll be nice to have a new friend around here; it gets pretty one-sided after a while.”

Marinette tilted her head to the side curiously. “Why do you say that?” she noticed that they zipped right up to the 12th floor, probably because they pressed the button for her floor too late.

“Well, no one seems to want to get to know me for _me_ , ya know?” he said off-handedly, shrugging as the door opened.

“ _Adrien! Thank GOD you’re here already.”_

_“It’s Adrien Agreste guys!”_

_“Adrien! Welcome back!”_

A tidal wave of clamors for attention when the elevator doors opened, and Marinette heard her heart hit the floor.

Agreste.

Adrien _Agreste_.

“You’re-“Marinette cut herself off, she shook her head as she held the elevator doors open for him. Adrien looked down at her curiously as people started to come closer. “Welcome to visit me anytime.” She smiled up at him. “It was nice meeting you.”

Adrien smiled broadly, stepping out of the elevator and turning to look back at her. “It was wonderful meeting you, Marinette.” He gave a slight wave and turned around to the small group gathering to meet him.

Marinette let the elevator doors slide close. Something in her heart hurt but she didn’t know what.

Maybe it was from her own selfishness and embarrassment from not recognizing him sooner; maybe it was being surrounded by the white; maybe it was because he was _the_ Adrien Agreste; maybe it was for how genuinely sad he seemed at not having a friend while at work and how excited he was that she talked to him like he was just a stranger in an elevator.

Marinette slumped back against the wall, watching the numbers count down and briefly wondering why her heart seemed stuck in her throat.

Floor 8 came up too quickly, and Marinette had to steady herself briefly once exiting the elevator, she sighed and glanced around at the slowly bustling bodies as desks were laid out in rows in front of her. Marinette briefly thanked that she wasn’t working here in the HR and Legal department, two separate entities but since they worked closely together, they worked on the same floor. Legal on one side and the HR on the other. Down the middle was clear, a distinct line between the two-- and at the end was Nathalie’s office, glass windows all around but a very thick paneled door.

Marinette walked slowly down the middle, most of the people who were already here didn’t pay her any mind except for one woman on the legal side as she stood up and walked towards Nathalie’s office as well. The other woman made it there before Marinette and opened the door for her.

“Oh, thank you.” Marinette said carefully, the other woman was short like Marinette with similar black hair and slanted eyes, but whereas Marinette was mixed with Chinese heritage, this woman seemed completely Japanese.

“No problem.” She seemed stiff and formal, and about Marinette’s age as well if not a couple years older.

“Marinette, hello. Come in, come in.” Nathalie passed papers along her desk and shifted her computer screen before turning her full attention to the two women in front of her.

“Marinette, this is Kagami. She is one of our only employees who is permitted to work in our legal department along with our human resources department. I’ve asked her today to see the procedure on boarding and handling the paperwork as well.”

“Oh, ok.” Marinette said softly, looking over at Kagami before sitting easily in the chair in front of Nathalie’s desk.

“She was an intern like you, but we were impressed with her performance and hired her on, she’s been with us for a full year now, isn’t that right, Kagami?”

“Yes, Nathalie.” She seemed so stiff and formal, Marinette had to applaud her dedication, but it seemed uncomfortable.

The process was easy, just some information that Marinette needed to fill out and then Nathalie quickly showed Kagami what to do with the paperwork before Nathalie escorted Marinette out of the office and towards the elevator.

“You’ll get three weeks of training before you’ll be expected to start completely, of course you’re encouraged to start on your own sooner if you feel confident to do so. Since this is an internship for your school, you’ll report to your department head at the end of every shift, or unless they’re not here, to me so we can sign off on your paperwork. I understand that you will also be needing to scan your reports as well to save them and send them digitally?”

“Yes, that’s right.” Marinette nodded as Nathalie waved her into the elevator. “At the end of every work week I’ll need to send the scanned file to my internship director to count the hours.”

“It’ll be a long six months,” Nathalie replied easily, and Marinette had assumed at the tedious work it would be to count all the hours; but even though Marinette had assumed that, she had her doubts.

Floor 11.

The elevator door opened, and Marinette was astounded at the floor to ceiling wracks of fabrics on spokes, outfits already made and put together on rolling carts but shrink wrapped with tags for _Do Not Release; Pre-Spring Collection_ or _Post Released Fall Collection_. Organized in sections and rows and it was just a beautiful, chaotic mess, Marinette could feel tears welling up in her eyes as she fought to go run up and touch all the fabric, Nathalie continued to walk forward as Marinette wandered from side-to-side; something she noticed was that the wracks that were shrink wrapped with future designs were wrapped in black plastic.

“You know we’ve got more outfits and fabrics farther in,” a voice spoke up from nearby, and a tall woman with bright orange hair and thin pink lips poked her head out from behind some of the wracking.

Her teal eyes sparkled in the low fluorescent lights, which was impressive.

“Caline Bustier, the head of the alterations department. Caline,” Nathalie introduced, the woman wormed her way out of the maze of old outfits as she came to stand in front of the two other women. Her hair was short but pinned back, and her outfit was nearly all white. Marinette hadn’t realized how much she appreciated Nathalie’s dark pantsuit until Marinette saw how much… white this place had.

“This is Marinette Dupain-Cheng,”

“Welcome, Marinette.” Caline gripped Marinette’s hands eagerly, her eyes wouldn’t stop sparkling. Marinette noticed then the small red glasses that hung around her neck but that didn’t seem important now.

“Oh, I have so much to show you, I’m so excited.” She nearly pushed the other girl along and Nathalie followed behind at a slower pace as Caline pointed out all the different storage areas for spare fabrics, for spare threads, for tacks and sewing machines and needles and-

“We’re working on an alteration right now actually for a single set that Gabriel is releasing soon!” Caline was excited as she brought Marinette into the main room, and that was when Marinette understood why the rest of the lights on the floor were turned low.

It was so the model in the center of the room would be illuminated as much as possible, seeing the folds of her dress clearly and crisply as she stood posed with her hand out to her side.

Marinette stood in the darkness staring up at this gorgeous piece in front of her; and the dress was beautiful as well with the crisp white ruffles of her dress that started at the thigh of the model and tapered down to the floor.

The top part of the garment was a subtle cream color with prints of flowers across the top of a sweetheart neckline, the back was exposed entirely and even showed off the model’s dimples of Venus, which were mirrors to each other and highlighted by the light and the cut of the gown.

Her hair was also up in a high ponytail, but unlike Lila’s this model’s hair seemed full of life as it curled in on itself and overlapped, her bangs were pinned out of her face, and it would honestly be a shame to cover it. It was the sway of the ponytail down the model’s back actually that drew Marinette’s eye.

The model was high on a pedestal (literally) as there were other workers going around on her skirt, tucking loose frills away as they resized the garment to fit her lithe frame.

The model turned her head slightly, crystal blue eyes reflected the light from above her and it suddenly seemed like the background faded away at the golden waves of her hair and the lightness of her eyes.

“This is Chloé, she’ll be down here quite a bit over the next few weeks.”

One thought ran through Marinette’s mind as she stood stock still there on the floor looking up at Chloé, heart thundering in her ears even when the model caught her eye and gave her a slight frown; It was how the name Chloé didn’t seem to fit her at all.

Aphrodite did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CHLONETTE HERE WE GOOOOO
> 
> Cover image done by Batberryboo on tumblr/twitter.


	2. The Panic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After an impressive amount of attention the story has gotten I have decided to continue. So, here's a new chapter... as a treat. The next chapter will come sometime next week.

_“A-and then she was just standing there! Still as a statue. I swear if I touched her she would’ve crumbled,”_ came Marinette’s panicked voice through the speakerphone. Alya cast a worried glance over to her boyfriend, who was sitting on the bed beside her. 

“Girl,” Alya sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose under her glasses. “She’s a **_model_ ** _._ She’s supposed to just stand there!” 

Nino swallowed his chuckle from beside her when Alya shot him an annoyed look. 

“ _Alya, you don’t understand I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone so pretty-_ ” 

“Woah, woah, woah Dudette!” Nino chimed in, cutting her off. “Have you NOT seen your best friend, aka my girlfriend, aka the most gorgeous monster on this planet?” 

“Hey!” Alya said, smacking his arm. Nino laughed. 

“You call yourself those things all the time.”

Alya huffed, playing with her phone charm as she pouted. “Not in the same sentence, though.” 

“ _Nino? I didn’t realize you were there..._ ” Nino laughed as Alya groaned. 

“Mari _NETTE_ , I told you he was here when you first called me.” 

“ _Oh, you did?_ ” Silence for a moment. “ _Sorry._ ” Alya could tell Marinette had shrunk into whatever she was wearing.

“You were too busy experiencing gay panic to notice the straight dude.” Nino said, shrugging. Alya ran a hand through her hair as she nodded in agreement. 

“ _I’m not panicking._ ” Marinette defended, voice muffled from whatever she’d shrunk herself into.

“You called me, screaming your pretty little head off about a _model_ you’re working with. If that’s not a panic I don’t know what it is- Nino!” Alya interrupted herself as she felt something claw at her side. _That_ definitely _wasn’t_ the baby kicking. 

Nino laughed, “Oops, sorry babe. I guess Wayzz got out of my hands when I wasn't paying attention.” 

“ _Wayzz?_ ” Marinette asked, Alya sighed as she re-positioned herself to be more comfortable with her large belly. 

“Yeah, hang on, let me put pants on so we can video call. I’ll show you what Nino decided to buy today.” 

“ _You don’t have to put on pants on my account.”_ Marinette replied but Alya ignored her to find loose fitting pyjama pants. 

A few moments later Marinette’s face was entirely too close to her phone and they had a great view of her nostrils. 

Alya moved her phone to show what Nino was holding…

_“A turtle? Nino, you got a turtle?”_

“Sure did, Dudette!” 

_“And… Wayzz?”_

“Well,” Nino shrugged and Alya laughed. 

“No, no, no, you’re gonna tell her how you came up with Wayzz.” 

“Ok, ok, ok,” Nino held a free hand up as he cradled the little turtle again. “So, Wayzz, right?” 

_“Riiight?”_ Came Marinette’s unsure voice. 

“So, it sounds like whiz-”

_“Oh god Nino-”_

“Wait, no! Like, _cheese whiz_! The canned spray cheese Americans put on their crackers.” 

_“Oh.”_ Marinette blinked a few times before she brought the phone closer to her face. _“You named your pet turtle after cheese?!”_

Nino and Alya laughed together, “That’s what I told him!” Alya moved her glasses on top of her head, rubbing a tear from her eye. 

“It’s a good name!” Nino defended, holding Wayzz closer to his face. “It takes someone with more than two brain cells to understand.” 

“It takes someone with _two_ brain cells to come up with that name.” Alya teased back, scrunching her nose. Nino threw a pillow at her in retaliation. 

“Hey, you do _NOT_ want to start this war!” Alya threatened. Nino smiled smugly back at her. 

_“Guys can you flirt after I get off the call?”_

“You’re the one who called _us_.” Nino defended, arms crossed. 

“ _I called Alya.”_ Marinette hummed then, “ _I’m surprised you’re not working tonight, actually_.” 

Nino shrugged in response, Wayzz wandering the bed free once again. “The other night shift manager needed a new schedule so we traded weekends for the time being.” Nino managed the freight crew at a large department store he’d worked at since high school. It wasn’t the most glamorous job at the moment but it paid well… plus the hours were decent enough that he could still DJ on the side _if_ he wanted. 

Alya, being the ever present, persistent, nosiest person Marinette had ever known, worked as a journalist even before completing her degree. 

“Well, so we can get you off the phone faster, what else can you tell us about this girl?” Alya said, flipping the phone camera around so it could focus on her again. Alya got comfy in her pillows as Marinette hid her face within the overly large sleeves of her sweater. 

It was getting late already, and Alya knew that Marinette couldn’t keep doing these late nights when her internship required so much attention and energy from her. 

“ _Well, I was too busy to talk to her._ ” Marinette started. _“But I caught her name! It’s Aph- Um, Chloé.”_

“Aphumchloe.” Nino repeated, rubbing his chin in thoughtfulness. “And you guys thought Wayzz was a weird name.” 

“That’s because it is,” Alya pointed out, turning a raised eyebrow at Marinette as Alya pulled her own face closer to the phone. 

“Girl, what the _hell_ were you just going to call her?” 

Marinette blushed scarlet even through the screen of the phone and awful yellow lighting of her lamp; Marinette giggled to herself but the phone still picked up the sound. _“Well…”_

Aph… What started with Aph? Alya wracked her brain. 

_“Aphrodite.”_ Marinette bit her lip. Alya’s eyes widened as she squealed, throwing her arms in the air and tossing her phone as well. 

“Wow,” Nino nodded in appreciation. “I don’t compare women to goddesses, women _are_ goddesses but I don’t name names, ya know? That’s how wars are started.” 

“Oh hush it mister man.” Alya commented, dragging herself up to reach for her phone. It was just out of reach for her though, so Nino grabbed it for her. Wayzz brushed past her and Alya suppressed a shudder. 

“It’s gonna take me a while to get used to Cheese Shell.” She commented as she got back into her nest of pillows as Nino handed her her cellphone. He gasped, picking Wayzz up once again. 

“There’s no need for name calling.” Nino defended, getting up from the bed and padding over to the tank in the corner of their room. 

“ _I think he’s kinda cute_.” Marinette commented, Alya shot her an annoyed look. 

“You don’t have to live with _it_.” 

“Give it a week!” Nino called over his shoulder. Alya stuck her tongue out at him, but he wasn't looking. 

“I wasn’t talking about the turtle.” Alya said quietly into the phone so Marinette could hear her comment. Marinette let out a laugh.

“Well, ok. So this model is super pretty. _Obviously,_ she’s a model. What else?” Alya asked. 

Marinette paused then, biting her bottom lip in habit that had developed back in high school. 

_“Would you believe that I haven’t_ actually _talked to her yet?”_ Marinette squeaked out, hiding her face again. 

Alya laughed at her friend, and at Nino as he sprinted back at the bed, jumping on it and landing next to Alya in the pile of pillows. 

“The Gay Panic!” he exclaimed, pointing at Marinette through the phone. Marinette cried out “ _noooooooo_ ” in the background of Nino’s teasing. 

Alya smiled at the two of them, Nino teasing Marinette, and Marinette’s bright red face. 

It was then that a tortoiseshell cat jumped on the bed behind Marinette, red and black spotted collar around her neck and bright red bell ringing as she chirped at Marinette. 

“ _Tikki- ok, ok! I guess it’s time for me to go, Tikki wants to sleep and I’m keeping her awake”_ Marinette brought the cat closer to her so the two others could see Tikki through the phone screen. _“Tikki, say goodnight to your aunt and uncle._ ” 

“Goodnight, Tikki!” Nino sang, Alya giggled next to him. 

“Goodnight Tikki, goodnight Marinette.” Alya wiggled her eyebrows. “Talk to her tomorrow!” 

_“I- I don’t know if I can do that.”_ Tikki meowed louder in that instant, head butting her head against Marinette’s, pushing the girl’s bangs into her eyes. _“Fine, fine! Goodnight!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, the Kwami's are pets. Is anyone surprised? Probably not, but you can't convince me otherwise that Tikki isn't absolutely a needy cat.
> 
> Also if you would like to help support me in writing, check out my profile!


	3. Bold of You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The talk with Alya and Nino the night before hype's Marinette up for the next day, but talking with Chloé seems like the last thing Marinette actually wants to do.

“You’re gonna do it, you’re gonna do it.” Marinette chanted to herself as she strode into the fashion building the next morning. Coffee in hand as she produced her badge, a backpack over her shoulder.

“You’re gonna talk-” Marinette stopped short when someone stood right next to her. Like, uncomfortably close next to her. She looked at them from the corner of her eye. 

Adrien waved down at her, smiling largely. “Good morning!” 

“Oh, it’s just you.” Marinette sighed in relief, worried it would be Chloé or worse, Lila. 

“Just me?” Adrien questioned, eyebrows raised in amusement. Marinette sipped her coffee as they made their way towards the elevator. 

“Oh-” Marinette stopped short, nearly choking on her coffee as she coughed into her sleeve. “No, no! I didn’t mean it like that. I'm so sorry.” She started saying quickly. Adrien held his hands up to her. 

“Hey it’s ok--” 

“No, but like I’m really glad to see you, totally! I’m just glad that it’s... “ she faltered, “... just you.” she finished lamely. 

Adrien blinked at her before glancing around and leaning down towards her. “Is… is everything ok?” He said softly. 

Marinette breathed a heavy sigh as they walked towards the elevator again. “Yeah, I’m just distracted recently--” 

“ADRIKINS!” a voice called through the lobby, and Marinette’s heart slammed to a stop in her chest, nearly knocking her breathless. _Oh god, oh god._

“Chloé!” Adrien smiled warmly at the blonde girl as she approached them. Her makeup was done but applied lightly so that it could be modified for whatever shoot they had planned for the day. She pouted her glossed pink lips at the two of them, sizing them up and down. 

Adrien was smiling warmly, his usual slicked back hair messy with _beach waves_ . _How do you have beach waves with that short of hair what the fu-_

“How on earth do you get your hair to do _that_?” Chloé flipped her own blonde hair over her shoulder, held together by her high ponytail. She sized Marinette up, crystal blue eyes flicking up and down as she studied Marinette’s small heeled black booties, sheer tights with little hearts, a mint green tennis skirt, and a black tucked in velvet shirt. Marinette blushed furiously, avoiding the blondes’ gazes as they stood in the elevator together. 

“Oh!” Adrien realized after a moment of tense and awkward tension once the doors finally closed. “Right, Chloé, this is Marinette! She’s an intern in the alterations department.” 

“Oh, I saw you yesterday.” Chloé commented off handedly, but it made Marinette’s heart stutter. 

“Y-You did?” Marinette squeaked out. 

“I’m Chloé Bourgeois, but you already know _me_.” She laid her hand delicately out for Marinette to take. “Charmed, I’m sure.” Her head was turned to the side, nose in the air, unaware of the heart attack Marinette was currently having. 

_I am- WAIT NO. Oh god I’m talking to her. Wait, Dupain-Cheng what are doing-_

Shocking all in the elevator as the numbers climbed higher and higher, Marinette did indeed take Chloé’s offered hand gently in her own-- but leaned down and placed a gentle _kiss to her knuckles oh god Marinette what are you doing-_

“OH OH Looks like my floor’s here bye Adrien bye Chloé it was _nicetomeetyou-”_ Marinette jumped out of the elevator, thankfully it had been only the three of them BUT STILL. 

The doors closed with a wide eyed Chloé and a confused Adrien, but Marinette didn’t _dare_ look back. 

Though after a good few purposeful strides forward she was confused on what floor she was even on- this wasn’t 11. 

A few confused stares greated her, and she realized she was on… 8. 

Great. 

Marinette’s face was red and flushed _already; she_ didn’t need _this_. 

“Marinette,” Kagami got up from her desk, smoothing out her pants as she came up to the girl. “I see you’re here, do you need to see Nathalie?”

“I-” Marinette started but apparently Kagami wasn’t finished yet. 

“Unfortunately she isn’t in yet this morning, could I assist you?” 

That stopped Marinette, she bit her lip in thought. 

“Actually, could I talk with you privately?” She whispered. 

Kagami, curious as well, looked at her desk for a moment before nodding. 

“Yes, we can use one of the meeting rooms. They’re private.” 

Kagami led Marinette into one of the glass windowed rooms with chairs lining a long oak table. She had a notepad in hand as she sat at one side, Marinette sat stiffly on the other. 

“Is this a complaint with your program?” Kagami started off, clicking her pen. Marinette’s eyes widened. 

“Oh- Oh no! No, not at all.” 

“Then is this about another employee?”

_Chloé_ , her brain supplied but Marinette shook her head. “No, it’s not that either.” 

Kagami, confused once more, clicked her pen again and put it down. 

“Then I do not understand, why did you want to talk with me?” 

Marinette rubbed her temples, forgetting she had a barrette’s in her hair, one that matched her skirt and the other glittery silver, knocking them loose. 

“Do you ever do something thinking it’s the _right_ response for the interaction, but realizing that it _wasn’t_ and wondering _why_ you did it?” 

Kagami, taking a minute to absorb the information and looking down at her notepad as she did so. 

She snapped, “Yes!” she breathed, eyes wide. “When I was first learning French, that was very common for me.” 

“Right,” Marinette felt bad forgetting for a moment that Kagami was relatively new to the country. “Do you have a lot of friends here?” 

Kagami paused for a moment before shaking her head. “No, I’ve been too involved with my studies and fencing, and then work.” 

“You fence?” Marinette’s interest piqued then, she didn’t know a lot about the sport, but loved the grace and talent that went into it. 

“Leisurely now, I used to compete when I was younger.” 

“That’s impressive!” Marinette breathed, eyes widened. Kagami waved her hand dismissively, back still rigid even though she sat with Marinette.

“Please, what is the purpose of this conversation so that we may approach it and handle it?” 

“Oh, right.” Marinette’s heart fluttered at the thought of her mortal embarrassment just moments ago. “Well, you see, there’s one of the models… one with blonde hair… and they’re so pretty and I worry I may have overstepped my boundaries when talking with them-” 

“-Oh.” Kagami’s voice was flat, not just her usual cadence but it felt hollow. “Please refrain from conversing with the models, if at all if it can be helped. We’ve had to let go many interns and professionals because they could not _leave the models alone_.” Her voice was sharp and to the point, a lot like the sabre she used to fence with. 

“Oh,” Marinette’s voice fell short, uncomfortable once again in the settings. “Ok, thank you.” She leveled her voice, “I’ll be sure to conduct professionally for now on.” 

“Good,” Kagami nodded standing up and gathering the notepad and pen. “If that’s all please return to your floor.” 

“Right.” Marinette grumbled, standing up and leaving the room when Kagami opened the door for her, Marinette strode towards the elevator while Kagami made her way back to her desk. 

Hopefully working her day away would better her mood; Caline was more than happy to throw Marinette into work, scraps of fabric bunched and laid together and heaps and piles of the floor, and Caline asked Marinette _nicely_ to un-tack all of that fabric, smooth it out, and roll it back up to be used for other designs. 

Whenever someone who _wasn’t_ Caline entered her corner of the workshop, Marinette would hide in the fabrics and wait until they were gone. The action of which _did_ get some questionable looks from a few of the other bodies around the floor who were nearby, but no one had seemed to complain as of yet about her strange habits. 

It was nearing the end of her day without a run in with Chloé or Adrien, and she thought she would make out like a bandit with her embarrassment until tomorrow. 

Though it was too good to be true, when she had gotten done with all the fabric and put away all the pins and tacks, Caline had started her on some preliminary designs featuring Spring, and had even _kindly_ offered previous years spring looks to get an idea of what Gabriel and the fashion label leaned towards. 

A few of which featured Chloé, much to Marinette’s chagrin. 

It was sweet torture, to put it simply. To be offered with her eyes the very thing which she had unknowingly sought to destroy with her own hands (and lips, apparently). 

Staring at Chloé’s face while sketching dresses Marinette could imagine the blonde girl wearing? Torture. Absolute wonderful torture. 

“So, you’re an artist.” A soft voice came from behind her, scaring Marinette out of her seat and grabbing her designs, crumpling them up and throwing them out of the open window in one fluid motion. 

Staring wide eyed at each other was none other than the current bane of Marinette’s existence at the moment. Chloé. 

“Jumpy, too.” She remarked dryly, arms crossed and hip cocked to the side. 

Marinette still had her back to her desk, gripping it tightly. 

“Chloé, n-nice to see you. What brings you here?” 

The blonde girl rolled her eyes, “it’s the _alterations_ department? I’m here to get my outfit _altered_.”

“R-right.” Marinette commented lamely. It took a few seconds of silence for something to strike a chord with her though. 

Aside from the fact that Chloé wasn’t wearing anything spectacular that stood out as a “height of fashion piece.” If she was getting her outfit altered, where was her outfit?

“But, Caline is over there. Why are you over _here_?” Marinette pointed to the floor, standing up straight and crossing her arms.

Chloé shifted then, bringing the backpack from the ground behind her and handing it to Marinette with an outstretched arm. 

“My bag?” Marinette’s eyes widened as she looked at her feet and realized she did _not_ have it. How long was it missing? 

“You left it in the elevator this morning.” Chloé stated, looking annoyed to even be here. _Oh_ , Marinette thought, _that long_. 

“Umm, thanks.” Marinette murmured, coming up to the other girl and taking it from her hand. “You didn’t…?” the question left lingering in the air. Chloé pouted her lips, looking off to the side again with tightly crossed arms. 

“ _No_. I didn’t look in your stupid bag.” 

Marinette’s grip on her bag tightened as she brought it closer to her. 

“Cool, well…” she faltered, moving to put her bag back by her desk. “Thanks for bringing it back, then-” 

When Marinette turned back around, Chloé was closer than before-- only a step or two away from her. Before Marinette could get her question out, Chloé had leaned forward towards her, stare stern as her hands were placed on her hips. Marinette leaned back from her, trapped by the woman in front of her and her desk. 

“Listen, _Marinette_ .” Chloé’s lips moved in exaggerated motions around the girl’s name. Gone were the soft pinks of earlier today and instead replaced by a bold red lip and dusty yellow eye shadow. “Don’t think I’m always _nice_ and _gracious_ . I am the Queen Bee around here, Adrien thinks he runs the show but that’s just because he’s Gabriel’s only child. _I_ say what goes on around here, Adrien always eventually agrees with me, anyways.” Chloé looked down her nose at Marinette. “And what Adrien agrees to, he can get Nathalie _and_ Gabriel to agree to.” 

Marinette, though, on one hand she was wanting to puff out her chest, take out her defiance and tell the model to shove it somewhere unpleasant and that she didn't care. 

On the other hand though… 

_Step on me. Step on me. Step on me._

Marinette was sweating.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)


	4. Flattered

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have some good news! I now have an editor who is a gift to this lowly goblin, so hopefully these chapters will be higher quality for your guys' enjoyment. [Early chapters may or may not be updated to reflect better writing, sentence structure, and grammar]
> 
> Now go on and enjoy the gaaaaaayyyyyyyyy [panic].

  
“You good now?” Adrien asked, rubbing Chloé’s back as she lay face down in her feather down duvet. 

“I’ve never been more humiliated in my _life_ , Adrikins.” she sniffed, her mascara running and staining her white satin pillow case. 

Adrien raised his eyebrow at her antics. 

“Yes, you have.” He pointed out, grabbing a few tissues from the box near her bed and handing them to her. “It’s not that big of a deal, Chloé.” 

“It _is_ though!” She hissed, sitting up on her knees and snatching the tissues out of his hand. “H-How _dare_ Marinette make a _fool_ of me like that!” 

Adrien wasn’t buying it, and he showed his uninterested face with his eyebrow still raised. 

Chloé blushed but stuffed her face in the tissues to hide it, taking one to wipe the mess of mascara off. It made bigger raccoon eyes instead of cleaning it off, but she wasn’t terribly worried about Adrien seeing her like this anymore. 

The life of a model was in no way glamorous despite what it looked like to the public. Sure, they were beautiful people living a handsome lifestyle, but there was _no_ privacy anymore. In fact, Adrien and Chloé had seen each other naked or nearly naked oftentimes enough that there was just no... interest there, if there was any before.

Chloé was no longer someone interested in other people’s bodies while being obsessed with her own; she had seen countless women unclothed or unclothed _enough_ , men too. You get desensitized to the human body rather quickly while modeling, or _at least_ you get desensitized to a sense of privacy or boundaries. 

Chloé looked at Adrien with a pout, her heart pounding and her stomach growling. “Alright, Princess. Want some food?” 

“Nothing with too many carbs, my cheat day is in two more days.” She responded, sniffling and sliding off her bed, shuffling around the mess in her room from that morning when trying to find something to wear.

Adrien had commented on the state of her room earlier but she waved it off, and now that she was there looking at the mess she made she felt another wave of embarrassment from earlier today. 

“Well, before we go wipe off the rest of your makeup.” 

“Go?” she questioned him, light blonde hair hung over her shoulders as she started to fidget with the ends. 

Adrien squinted at her. “Yeah, to get food?” 

“Adrien, I have food.” 

Adrien crossed his arms in defiance. “Protein shakes do _not_ count, Chloé.”

She brushed her hands through her hair, flipping it back over her shoulder as she pouted at him. 

“I have _more_ than _that_.” She defended, tying her hair back up in her signature ponytail as she threw on a discarded gray sweater that had been left on one of the cream arm chairs in the corner of her room. She grabbed a makeup wipe from her vanity near the closet door and peered into the mirror as she wiped off the rest of her mascara, along with other trace amounts of makeup that had been left over from the day. 

“Ok, Miss Kale _everything_.” Adrien snorted, closing her bedroom door and following her out into the living room. Her one bedroom apartment was… practical… Nothing like the hotel room she used to live in when she was younger, which was immaculate and spacious compared to the slightly messy and cramped apartment she lived in currently.

Her living room, aside from her bedroom, was the biggest room in the apartment. Her kitchen had a bar so it wasn’t entirely closed off from the rest of the space as it opened up out to the living room. 

Aside from the bar stools that sat underneath the bar, and the couch pushed against the wall that faced the floor to ceiling windows with a terrace that overlooked the city streets and even had a view of the Eiffel tower, there was an exercise bike in the middle of the room where a coffee table usually would go, along with a rolled up yoga mat that was sat neatly next to it. 

A TV was also placed on the same wall where her bedroom door was positioned, but it was currently only streaming some music she put on. A lone plant sat in the corner, its leaves looking wilted. 

Chloé went into her kitchen, which was also on the smaller scale but had plenty of cabinet and cupboard space. 

“Ok, what are you gonna cook up, chef?” Adrien asked lazily, leaning against the bar and peering into the kitchen. He looked down at the cold tile and Chloé’s sock covered feet. 

“Nuh uh, I’m not cooking. Food was your idea, you’re cooking. I’m just telling you what I want.” Chloé put her palm against her chest facing her body towards him as she opened up the fridge and peered inside. 

Adrien rolled his eyes and tousled his already messy hair. He tapped at one of his earrings as he waited for her to make up her mind. 

Chloé opened up a few of her cabinets and peered inside as well, before finally she pulled out some rice, some seasoning, tomatoes, chickpeas, coconut milk, spinach… sweet potatoes? Along with some other things from around her kitchen but Adrien stopped paying attention at that point. 

“Ok.” Chloé said while placing her hands on her hips. “I want curry.” 

“Curry?” Adrien said flatly, looking at the rice. 

“Curry.” She nodded. “Sweet potato, chickpea, spinach and coconut curry.” She said as she pointed to the object she laid out on the counter. 

“Rice is carbs.” He pointed out, she waved him off and instead pointed to the floor in front of her, indicating for him to come. 

Adrien sighed dramatically, groaning as he lumbered his way around the corner and into the kitchen, not waiting for Chloé to get out of the way before he continued to groan and lean onto her, his head settling on top of hers as he continued the ungodly noise that he knew got on her nerves. 

“Ok, Ok!” she pushed against him, and with a surprising amount of strength she managed to get him off of her and stumbled back a step or two. Adrien laughed as he moved out of the way for her to stomp around and turn the TV to something more entertaining. 

She came back around and took a bottle of pinot gris out from her fridge and popped it open, pouring herself a glass and leaving a glass and the bottle out for Adrien as well before she moved back to the living room and sat on the couch. Her feet were tucked underneath her as she pulled a woven blanket from over the back of the couch and draped it across herself. 

Adrien set out to work, looking for a recipe on his phone before setting it up against the bottle of wine and a towel as he followed along with the directions. 

After a few minutes he finally spoke up again: “So are you ready to _really_ talk about what happened today?” 

He could see her shoulder’s tense from the corner of his eye. 

“I _already_ said something about it, I was _embarrassed_.” 

“Riiiight, and not totally, unabashedly flattered, right?” her silence bought him a large smile he knew she wasn’t going to see. Because she was Chloé, she was stubborn and refused to look at him when she got defensive like this. 

“Absolutely _not_.” She huffed. 

“Just like you _didn’t_ actually look in her backpack, right?” 

She didn’t answer that. 

“That’s an invasion of privacy, Chlos.” 

“ _I didn’t look in her stupid bag!”_ Chloé all but shrieked, but still she didn’t look at Adrien. He was trying not to grin harder now. 

“I found this _really_ interesting drawing on the street today though, right outside the building…”

Chloé snapped around then, wide eyed with the wine glass in her hand. She took a sip out of it, eyeing his stupid grin, and she put it down on the small nightstand that was next to the couch and stood up, blanket pooling around her feet and onto the floor. 

“Let me see it.” She demanded, stomping up to the bar and looking right at him. Adrien feigned innocence. 

“What?”

“The _drawing_.” Chloé bit out, shoving her hand palm up towards him. Adrien looked down at her hand with amusement and then back at her. 

“Really?” 

“Gimme, gimme.” She emphasized it with closing her palm at him rapidly. 

“I dunno…. You’re being a _real princess_ right now.” Adrien teased her. Chloé pouted and batted her eyelashes at him, and Adrien only raised his eyebrow at her. “You know that doesn’t work on me.” 

“Ugh!” Chloé stomped her foot, and Adrien tried not to snicker. “Unacceptable Adrien _Antonin_ Agreste! How DARE you tease me like this and then not give me what I want!” 

“You’re such a **Drama Queen** , Chlos.” Adrien sighed in exasperation, leaving the knife he was holding mid-cut through the spinach to dig in his jeans pocket instead. He brought out a crumpled piece of paper that looked like it had been ripped out of a notebook and crumpled in hands (and a pocket). 

Chloé snatched it out of his hands, moving away from the bar quickly to sit down on the couch again. On her way over she turned on the floor lamp, since the sun had set fully about an hour ago, and the only light in the room was coming from the kitchen and the TV. 

Adrien smiled to himself once again, going back to chopping vegetables as Chloé tried her best to smooth the crumpled piece of paper, staring in what she would argue _wasn’t_ awe. 

Though it totally was as she stared at the basic sketches of what was effectively herself in a pretty lavender dress, a sunflower print overalls and a straw hat, and some kind of a floral summer dress that didn’t have any color to it. They were all very beautiful, and surprisingly detailed with the amount of lining there was. 

Her face was the most recognizable, though. There wasn’t any question in her mind that Marinette was drawing Chloé herself. 

She would never admit out loud in a thousand years that _she_ felt flattered by _Marinette Dupain-Cheng._

No matter how much Adrien grinned at her, or how hot her face burned looking at the drawings. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I don't know Adrien's middle name but his first and last name both start with "A" I figured his parents would be the type to make his middle name also start with an "A"; anyways yes his middle name is now Antonin. 
> 
> Did Chloé actually look in Marinette's bag? The world may never know... :^)
> 
> Thanks for reading, please leave a comment if you liked the chapter! If you like what I'm doing consider going to my profile and checking out other ways to find me!


	5. Photo shoot Pt: 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette gets an unexpected call on her first weekend since starting her internship

08:00 came too early, especially on a day where Marinette was _not_ supposed to be up that early. Could she sleep in? No. Why?Because her cell phone was ringing from beneath her pillow.

“ _Hello Marinette,_ ” Nathalie’s voice blared from her phone. Marinette groaned out her _good morning_ , still half asleep with the remnants of a dream in her eyes. 

_“I’m calling to invite you to a last minute photo shoot that is scheduled for today; street-style is the theme. It's great hands-on training about working in the moment to alter outfits, help the models change into them, and see the background of what goes into the fashion brand and a photo shoot.”_ Nathalie explained but Marinette was sitting up awake at the first mention of a shoot.

“I would love to. When is it?” Marinette said, struggling not to yawn, eyes looking outside to the overcast clouds of the early morning day.

“ _In two hours, a chauffeur will be by your home address to pick you up. Please be ready before that time_.” With that, Nathalie hung up. 

Marinette’s heart quickened. A photo shoot, _today_. In two hours.

_Oh god, oh god-_

“Alya!” Marinette called out, sitting up on the couch she had been sleeping on. “Alya I have to go!” 

Marinette could hear shuffling from the room down the hall; a disgruntled Alya, sans glasses, stumbled out of the room with messy, curly, short reddish brown hair with a blonde ombre on the tips. 

“What- and the- _who the fuck woke me up_.” Alya grunted as she watched Marinette throw on pants, tucking in her t-shirt into the pants and stuffing whatever she had laying about in their living room into her duffel bag. 

“What’s going _on_ girl?” Alya stressed, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and shoving stray hairs out of her face. 

“I got a call.” Marinette replied between breaths as she scanned the living room. She snapped her fingers and grabbed her phone charger from the wall. “There’s a photo shoot today, in _two hours_. I’ve gotta get home, I’ve gotta get ready-” 

“Woah, woah, slow your skinny ass down.” Alya crossed her arms under her chest before she pointed to the couch. “Sit.” 

“Alya I don’t have _time-”_ Marinette started to protest but withered under Alya’s glare, quickly dropping onto the couch.

“Great. Now, what’s the theme of the photo shoot?” Alya asked as she sat herself down on the edge of the couch, Marinette’s blankets strewn about or haphazardly folded. 

“Umm, street wear…” Marinette said slowly, scratching at her cheek. Alya looked Marinette up and down before nodding. 

“Ok, give me two minutes. I’m gonna raid my closet to find you an outfit, and also you’re gonna let me do your makeup-”

“But, Alya-” Marinette started to protest but Alya shushed her and went back to her room quietly, careful not to wake Nino. 

Marinette hummed in anticipation, her feet tapping on the cream carpet of the apartment impatiently as she looked around at the walls that had newspaper articles tacked all over them. In a corner there was a small portion separate from the rest, articles that had red strings attached to them that linked to one another. 

“Here,” Alya came out with a red jumpsuit, it was short, with… shorts. Meant to be worn under something else (supposedly). “I’ve also got this cute tasseled jacket you can wear with this-” 

Alya stopped when she saw the questioning look in Marinette’s eyes. “Oh, Nino bought this for me for my birthday but shortly after…” Alya gestured towards her stomach, where she was showing a 5-month pregnancy. 

Marinette nodded in understanding. “Suddenly I couldn't fit into it anymore.” Alya shrugged. “Anyways, pair it with some high waist pants? Cute.” Alya nodded. 

“Alya, I’m a _fashion_ major.” 

Alya feigned a gasp, trying her best to look offended. “Are you saying I’m not _fashionable_?” 

Marinette rolled her eyes and she stood up to look at the jumpsuit closer. It was a high necked one with short sleeves, form fitting, a bright candy apple red. 

“I’ll try it on, but we need to go back to my place anyways.” Marinette conceded, taking it with her into the bathroom, which was unfortunately in Alya’s and Nino’s room. Marinette snuck through the room, a softly snoring Nino on the bed, a soft glow from the light above Wayzz’s tank illuminating the room. 

It fit… ok. Marinette looked at herself from the side in Alya’s full length mirror she had in the bathroom as she tried to smooth the fabric out. Alya was definitely more curvy than Marinette herself, and as this gift was intended for Alya it didn’t fit _quite_ right, but where it didn’t fit the best it still looked passable. 

Marinette realized suddenly that she _did_ have a pair of black overalls at her home, and as she imagined the outfit with the black overalls covering it, she realized that she also had a pair of bright red Converse to pair with it, and a red scarf to tie around her waist-

Marinette hurried out of the bathroom, throwing her pants on before leaving, carrying her night shirt out with her to her duffel bag. 

Alya smiled brightly when she saw Marinette wearing the jumpsuit. 

“Ok, your house?” Alya asked, holding up her keys. Marinette nodded, smiling. 

She paused though, “Umm, Alya? You’re still in your pyjamas.”

Alya looked down at herself before shrugging, waving away the concerns. 

“I’m a pregnant woman, I’ll dress how I please.” 

Marinette couldn’t argue with that, and off they were towards her parents bakery. 

The black overalls, check. The red converse, also check. The red scarf? Ditched, crossed out, didn’t work. 

But… this wasn’t a complete outfit… She needed some kind of accessories. Sure, she had in her signature ladybug earrings, which were super cute and totally matched her outfit for the day but _what else was missing_. 

“What about these?” Alya held up some daisy chain hair bands, and Marinette’s eyes widened as she took the bands and sat in front of her vanity, bringing her black hair up into twin buns on the top of her head, pulling the daisies to face outward. 

“That’s pretty adorable.” Alya commented as she found a white choker from Marinette’s stash of necklaces, handing it to her. 

Marinette fastened the choker around her neck and studied her look, turning from side to side in the mirror. 

“Ok, you look cute and functional now let me do your makeup.” Alya rummaged around in Marinette’s vanity drawer for her makeup, and she set out to work. 

“Please try not to stab me in the eye _this time_ ” Marinette murmured as Alya tilted the girl’s head around, applying light bits of eye shadow before moving onto foundation, highlight, and blush. 

Marinette looked at herself in the mirror once Alya stepped away; her eyes seemed more vibrant thanks to the light pink eye shadow with a bit of gold shine, and the sharp black wing of the eyeliner. Her cheeks and the tip of her nose were blush pink as well. 

Marinette put her round glasses on after a moment, finding some lip gloss and swiping it across her lips to help pull it together. 

“Ok.” Marinette nodded after a moment. “Ok, I just need a jacket and my bag.” 

“And breakfast,” a voice came from the doorway to Marinette’s room, the two girls turned around to see Sabine in the doorway with a folding tray of pastries and coffee cups. “Alya dear, I’m sorry; I didn't know what you were craving so I brought a little of everything.” She placed the tray on Marinette’s bed. 

“Thank you.” Alya nearly started to cry at the array of sweets and the cup of coffee. 

“I was wondering why you were back so early, but seeing you get so done up this early in the morning I’m assuming you’re going _back_ out.” Marinette’s mom looked the two girls over, giving a smile to her daughter. “You look very cute.” 

Marinette smiled and got up, going over to hug her mother. “Thank you!” 

Marinette shoved a macaroon in her mouth as she started rummaging in her closet, looking for an acceptable jacket. She cast another glance outside, the clouds looking angrier than earlier that morning. 

The alarm on her phone went off at 09:15, and Marinette rushed to throw on whatever black and semi-waterproof jacket she had, which happened to be a leather form fitting jacket that she made for when her grandmother came into town for a visit. 

“You’ll be leaving soon, right?” Sabine asked, taking a seat on the bed near the tray. Tikki was sleeping at the head of the bed on top of Marinette’s pillows, and she purred louder and stretched in her sleep at the weight on the bed. 

“Yeah, apparently I’m getting picked up here soon. The photo shoot starts at 10 somewhere around Paris.” Marinette shoved another pastry in her mouth as she searched for her travel bag, loading it with a travel sewing kit, an umbrella, and a few of the pastries on the plate her mother brought up.

“Do you want to take this coffee with you?” Sabine asked, gesturing to the cup. Marinette stared into the wall for a moment before shaking her head. 

“No, thank you though. I’m going to brush my teeth. Alya, can you watch my phone for me in case it starts ringing?” Marinette pushed her phone closer to her friend who had joined Sabine on Marinette’s bed. 

Alya had already taken Marientte’s coffee, sipping on it as soon as the other girl said that she didn’t want it. “Uh huh, watching it.” 

Marinette rolled her eyes, taking the daisy hair bands out of her hair as she went into the bathroom. 

Moments later she emerged, her hair brushed out and done up in more even twin buns on the top of her head. Her bangs swept across her left eye, and some stray hairs were pinned to the right side of her head with a golden hair clip that matched her round glasses that Marinette had picked up from her dresser near the door. 

“Looking cute.” Alya said between bites of her eclair. 

“Cute and functional for a working photo shoot day?” She spun around for the other two women, kicking her feet out and stuffing her hands in the pockets of her overalls. “Should I bring a belt?” 

“Why do you need a belt?” Sabine asked, Marinette looked at her outfit. 

“It would bring in the waist a bit more-- oh, a fanny pack.” Marinette went to her closet and dug around for one. 

“You’re already bringing your backpack-” Alya interjected. Marinette clipped her fanny pack on around her waist and let it sit along her hips. She stuffed her hands in her pockets again and tilted her head to the side, posing a bit. 

“Yeah, alright.” Alya conceded, nodding her head and taking another drink of her coffee. “That works.” 

“Yeah, see!” Marinette brought her arms out to her sides and turned around again, “I can put my small stuff in here that I need quickly, like my sewing kit and my fabric scissors--” she took the items back out of her backpack and put them into her red leather fanny pack. 

It was then that her cell phone began to ring, an unknown number lit up her phone screen. 

_“I’m here.”_ a gruff voice answered before disconnecting, Marinette looked at her phone in disbelief before a large grin broke out on her face, she kissed her mother on the forehead and gave Alya a quick hug, rushing to give a quick kiss to Tikki’s little spotted head before she threw her backpack on and waved goodbye.

“Bye!! I’ll be home as soon as I’m done!” 

Marinette disappeared down the staircase, the front door slamming shut. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guy's enjoyed the chapter! My editor and I worked tirelessly over the last week to fix and update previous chapters as well. 
> 
> Cover pic done by Batberryboo on tumblr/twitter!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	6. Photo shoot Pt: 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the late update, we'll try to stay on schedule from here on out.

Marinette was _vibrating_ from excitement. When she got downstairs there was a sleek black car waiting for her on the street, the window rolled down and the driver looking over his glasses at her. He got out and opened the rear door for her, closing it once she was securely inside. 

The leather of the seat was cool toned black with red stitching, and Marinette was trying her best not to squeal, squirm, or cry from happiness and nervousness. She settled on twiddling her thumbs as she stared out the window at the passing city streets. The path took a familiar turn, winding their way towards the Louvre. The car pulled up to the curb and stopped, the driver getting out and opening the door once again. Marinette emerged with eyes wide at the amount of vehicles that were present, along with just how _many_ people there were. 

Pop up covers and tents were placed on the cobblestone and extension cords were run out of white vans to large lights, carefully placed around glass diamond pyramids. Outfits on a trolley had been rolled in, covered in plastic to hide them and protect them from the rain. 

“Marinette!” Caline called excitedly, rushing up to her from one of the white vans. “I’m very excited you could make it today, especially so soon after starting.” Caline grabbed Marinette around the wrist, dragging her enthusiastically towards the covered pop-up areas.

“What do you need me to do?” Marinette asked, eyes wide under her gold rimmed glasses. There were bodies humming around in the immediate vicinity, bringing large equipment from other vans and hooking them up to the extension cords. Lights, fans, and a plethora of cameras. If Marinette didn’t know any better she would think that they were putting on a movie or a commercial production. 

“You’ll be helping me pin some outfits in place, as we didn’t have enough time to complete all of them. Which does include the dress we’ve been working on for Chloé.” 

Marinette’s heart thrummed as she told herself to not look at the closed-in covering, where the models must’ve been changing. 

_Chloé is here._ _Of course Chloé is here so why wouldn’t she be here._ Marinette told herself not to blush at this information, but she didn’t have to try to look interested. _This isn’t a big deal, I’m just working. I bet she won't even notice me._

As it turned out, Marinette _was_ busy with preparations and helping Caline, as well as setting up lights and fans. She met some of the people from other departments, and she even got to say hello to Nathalie, who was onsite taking pictures behind the scenes, supposedly for social media. 

Finally, the models emerged. 

Adrien was wearing a blue suit with dark brown oxfords, which splashed as he stepped in a puddle. He had a blue suit jacket thrown over his shoulder showcasing a tucked in shirt with weaving designs that reminded Marinette of something someone would wear during the 70’s. His hair was gelled back and swept gently in a small wave on top of his head, earrings that were no doubt specially chosen for this outfit dangling. 

“Marinette!” He gave her a smile and approached her, his spare hand secured in his pocket. “I didn’t know you were going to be here! That’s super cool! Do you wanna check me over?” He outstretched his arms, and Marinette nodded as she looked him over and made sure there were no stray threads. 

He wasn’t wearing anything around his neck though, and the outfit didn’t look complete without _something_. 

“Wait.Hang on, I think I saw something that would work with this.” She jogged back to where Caline was, looking through spare scraps of fabric and other small bits and baubles designed to make pinning the outfits together easier. 

Caline didn’t even acknowledge Marinette aside from a small smile, not even blinking as Marinette grabbed a black bow tie.

“Here.” Marinette said, untying the bow tie and hanging it around Adrien’s neck, leaving it untied. Adrien looked confused down at it and then at her. 

“The black helps offset the blues and the multi-color abstracts of your shirt while also completing your dark shoes, it adds a bit of contrast and helps tie it all together,” she glanced up at the sky and squinted at the clouds. “Especially with how bright but gray it is outside.” 

Adrien shrugged before grinning at her. “I’ll take your word for it. You’re here to make me look pretty, after all.” He winked down at her. Marinette rolled her eyes but nodded, smiling at him. 

“True-” she was interrupted by his stomach growling. “Are… Are you hungry?” She asked with concern, but Adrien just shrugged her off. 

“I ate this morning.” 

Something in his dismissive tone made her worry, so she grabbed his hand and dragged him towards an empty white van. She opened up the side sliding door and pointed for him to sit on the step. He did so after a second, careful not to cause any unseemly folds in the fabric of his outfit. She placed her hands on her hips and tapped her foot at him. 

“How long ago was _morning_?” She asked with a raised brow. Adrien visibly blushed then and scratched at his freshly shaved cheek. 

“Well… like, 5 hours ago?” He said sheepishly. Marinette’s eyes widened. 

“What?!” She whispered harshly, he just shrugged but a bead of sweat started to build on his brow. “Adrien are you able to eat sweets?” she asked firmly. She was aware of strict diets some models had to undergo, so she knew to double check with some of them. Although Adrien and Chloé were really her first high profile models that she’s interacted with, but _still_. 

“Yeah, uh, actually, I can have sweets today.” He grinned up at her, looking every bit like an adorable dork. Marinette was still wrapping her head around dealing with that instead of the serious personality he presented in the Agreste brand pictures. 

Marinette knew she brought the extra sweets with her for a reason, she just didn’t know she would be feeding a 20-something year old boy.

She took her backpack off and grabbed some wrapped up pastries, opening them to show to Adrien. His eyes widened as he started to visibly drool over them. 

He grabbed a chocolate croissant, careful to not get any crumbs on his clothing. 

Marinette carefully wrapped up the rest of the sweets she brought with her, depositing them back into her backpack. 

“Chloé!” a voice called, which drew Marinette’s attention towards the changing area. 

Chloé emerged from the cover, white stilettos with red painted toenails the first thing Marinette noticed. Marinette tried not to let her mouth drop open as her gaze traveled up the crisp lines of her white dress pant legs, which were hemmed to barely cover her exposed heels so the pants wouldn’t get wet on the bottom.

Bringing in her waist was a classic soft brown leather belt with golden accents, and under that was a tucked black turtleneck shirt. The patterning looked cotton, she thought idly, but from here it was hard to tell.

Draped elegantly over her shoulders was a soft cream and gray patterned coat with the lapels folded over and creased gently; hanging down the front over her shoulders looked to be two ribbons of the same material to tie in front to help keep the coat together. 

Her nails looked freshly manicured, crisp black with golden accents, clasped securely around a white and cream colored clutch. 

Marinette could make out parts of the makeup on Chloé’s face from how far away she was, another bold red lip very similar to the one the day before. Marinette couldn’t see much more though, as Chloé’s hair blocked the rest of her face aside from her nose; her bangs were pulled into soft elongated curls that looked like they had been tussled gently, the rest of her hair pulled over her shoulder with the same soft curling to it. 

Though, did it look… _lighter_ than it did yesterday? Marinette shook her head of the thought, it didn’t matter. 

She caught Adrien’s eye, and he was smiling _very knowingly_. Marinette’s face instantly turned bright red at having been caught.

“J-just looking her outfit over.” Marinette stuttered, Adrien nodded slowly making a _mmmmmhhhhmmmmmm_ sound at her. Marinette couldn’t help the high pitched whine that escaped at her embarrassment. 

“Isn’t it a _little_ hard to check her outfit when she’s _all the way over there_?” Adrien wiggled his eyebrows, and Marinette’s couldn’t help her pout or her flaming cheeks. 

“Noooooo. I-I can see just fine.” she supplied weakly. Adrien gave her a knowing smile.

“If you say so, but isn’t she missing something too?” Adrien tapped his chin, instantly regretting it as he realized he got chocolate on it. “Oh, shoot-” 

Chloé turned then, facing the two of them with a raised eyebrow. Well, maybe both of them were raised, Marientte couldn’t see the right side of her face as her bangs and hair nearly covered all of it. Marinette could see an annoyed look pass over Chloé’s face as she clutched her bag tighter in her hand and walked over to the two of them. Hips sashaying in her walk and Marinette _tried_ hard not to stare. In fact she turned her eyes away to watch Adrien look into a nearby mirror with a makeup artist as they wiped his chin clean to reapply his makeup. 

“What happened with Adrikins.” Chloé asked as she stood next to Marinette, now solidly two heads taller than her. Marinette was _not_ a tall person by any means, standing at only a solid 155.4 something cm (about 5.1 ft). While Chloé was a whopping 176.784 cm (about 5.8 ft) according to her Wikipedia page, but who was looking at that _definitely not Marinette last night, nope_. 

So, Chloé was already a taller woman than Marinette was, and these stilettos made Chloé _tower_ over her. 

Marinette was sweating, trying to make sure she could speak to her in an even voice. 

“I-I gave him a chocolate croissant, and he got chocolate on his face.” 

“Of _course_ he did.” Chloé said with an air of annoyance, gently placing her fingers against her forehead and shaking it gently. Marinette did study Chloé’s outfit closer this time, but then realized something as she looked between the two models. 

“Wait, wasn’t this supposed to be street wear?” 

Chloé looked a little surprised by this question before nodding slowly. “Yeah, but Gabriel works in mysterious ways and woke us up _gods_ early this morning and demanded a photo shoot today of a couple different outfits he’s been waiting to debut for _some ungodly reason_. So, here we are.” She gestured around her, arms up and hip cocked to the side in a sassy pose. 

Marinette rubbed her own chin, studying Chloé’s outfit, there was something missing around her neck, just like Adrien. 

Marinette snapped her fingers again. “Wait here,” she commanded, trotting off towards where Caline was once again. Caline didn’t acknowledge Marinette this time, too busy hand sewing some tacks into a gown that Marinette hadn’t seen before. She grabbed a cream colored ascot and went back over to the models. 

“Ok, here.” Marinette produced the ascot. Chloé looked at it in confusion, and then disgust. 

“What do you want _me_ to do with _that_?” 

Marinette rolled her eyes, then gestured for Chloé to bend down towards her. Surprisingly, Chloé obliged. 

Marinette stamped down the heat in her cheeks and tried to hear _anything_ else aside from the drumming of her heart in her ears as she brought the ascot up carefully to tie it around Chloé’s throat where the snug fit of her turtleneck ended. 

She tied off the ascot securely, gesturing for Chloé to stand up. She tried not to let her fingers linger against the woman’s neck, against what skin and hair she could touch. Marinette didn’t notice the pink tinge to Chloé’s own cheeks, and neither of them noticed the grin Adrien was giving them. 

Marinette reached up and fixed the ascot after the thrumming in her ears quieted down, fluffing the fabric out a bit, adding a bit more personality to the outfit as well as having another break between the black of Chloé’s form fitting turtleneck and the slight tan to her skin. Marinette nodded then, arms crossed and satisfied with her work. 

Moments later another woman came up, grabbing Chloé’s arm and looking down at Marinette-- though this other woman wasn’t much taller than Marinette herself. This woman wore a headset with a clipboard, chipped nail polish, and had short cropped orange hair that didn’t look quite... natural, but that wasn’t Marientte’s place to judge. She wore a pantsuit that didn’t look quite right on her smaller stature. 

“Is this _girl_ bothering you, Chloé?” the woman asked, voice high pitched and nasal. Marinette suddenly wondered where her migraine came from. 

“Sabrina?” Chloé seemed confused for a moment before it melted away. “Oh, no. This is just Marinette, she’s an intern.” 

_Just Marinette_. Marinette couldn’t help the huff in her breathing at the dismissive tone. Sure, she and Chloé weren’t friends by any means, but they were… something, right? 

“Humph.” Sabrina huffed, eyeing Marinette up and down. Marinette, not liking this type of attention, crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow under her rounded glasses. “Daisies, really? Soooo primary school, amiright _Chloé_?” Sabrina’s smile towards Chloé looked predatory... while also being filled to the brim with adoration. 

“Huh? I like daisies.” Chloé said, removing Sabrina’s arm from her own and stepping away from the other woman. 

“Go away,” Sabrina shooed at Marinette, waving her clipboard at her. “You’re obviously stressing Chloé out, and before a big shoot that is _un-acc-pet-able_.” Sabrina nodded to herself, and Marinette would even bet that Sabrina was the type of person to pat herself on the back, too. 

Chloé looked a bit concerned at Sabrina’s attitude. “Sabrina-” but the woman tutted at Chloé.

“I’m literally just doing my job.” Marinette defended herself, but Sabrina didn’t seem to like that answer. 

“Which _is_ ? I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were a _paid_ employee, _intern_.” 

Marinette bristled at that, but she ground her teeth and spun on her heel to walk away. 

“ _Who_ is _that_ ?” Marinette asked Adrien once she got closer to him. He was still sitting happily in the open van not too far away as she gestured back over to Chloé and... _Sabrina_. 

“Who, girl with the red hair?” Adrien asked, licking what chocolate remained on his fingers. Marinette sat next to him and nodded. 

“Looks orange to me.” Marinette grumbled, sinking into herself more. 

“That’s Sabrina, she’s Chloé’s manager… and self-proclaimed _best friend_.” 

Marinette scoffed at that claim, if Chloé's actions of actively trying to put distance between the orange headed girl and herself was anything to go by how much Chloé actually _liked_ her… Marinette would have to guess that Chloé didn’t like her manager. 

“If _she’s_ the best friend, what does that make _you_?” 

Adrien smiled cheekily at that, having apparently been _waiting_ for someone to ask that question. 

“I’m _Chloé’s best friend_.” 

Marinette smiled a bit at that, giggling at his antics. “How long have you two known each other?” Marinette asked, leaning back against her hands as her feet kicked out the side of the white van, bright red shoes against the dull gray sky as it was starting to mist again. 

“Nearly all our lives,” Adrien thought for a moment. “My parents were really good friends with hers. Actually, for a while she was my only friend, and vice-versa.” 

Marinette stalled at that, blinking at him and then back at the blonde girl across the way. 

“That’s almost sweet.” Marinette told him. “Well, don’t worry- you have one more in me.”

Adrien smiled genuinely then, soft and looking out of place compared to his smug or goofy smiles. “Thanks, Marinette. You have one in me, too. So, what about you, what’s Marinette’s story?” Adrien asked, copying how she was sitting. 

“I don’t really have one,” she shrugged, looking off to the side. “Normal biracial girl, ya know how it goes. I’m going to be an aunt soon, I think that’s the most exciting thing in my life though.” 

Adrien scoffed at her. “Puh-lease. You must be an incredible designer, I know how tough the competition is to get in one of our intern programs.” 

Marinette blushed at that, biting her lip as she smiled. “Well… I have _won_ a _couple_ awards for my designs…” but she trailed off as she caught sight of Nathalie, and Nathalie’s discouraging words flooded back. 

_Unoriginal._

“How long have you been designing?” 

Marinette shook her head out of her thoughts, and tapped her chin instead “like… solidly for 10 years now? My mom taught me how to sew when I was pretty young, and then when we were struggling for a bit money-wise she taught me how to make my own clothes out of fabrics or curtains we had, and then it was all downhill from there.” Marinette giggled and Adrien joined in her laughter. 

“Ok, ok last question _for now_ .” Adrien sat up straight and Marinette followed suit, puffing out her chest as well. Adrien cracked a smile in his serious facade. “ _Where_ did you get that pastry, and do you have any more?” He was nearly drooling again, and Marinette swore he had stars in his eyes as he asked. 

Marinette smiled at him, bringing her backpack back out to bring out the rest of her pastries. “Here, take them all. You need them more than I do it seems.” Adrien nodded and happily (greedily) took them in his hands, popping a macaroon in his mouth and swooning. 

“Where I get them is **_Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie_ **, it’s actually not too far away from the Eiffel Tower, I stop by on my way to work.” Marinette smiled like she wasn’t telling someone where to find her house. 

She discovered in university to _not_ let people know you live in a bakery because _otherwise_ they’ll expect sweets from you. Constantly. For free. Which is just bad business in the long run, so she started saying where she got her sweets from every morning so then _other_ people could stop by and pick up something to eat on the way too or from class. 

Adrien saved them, wrapping them delicately and placing them on the side somewhere that Marinette wouldn’t remember and hoped that Adrien _would_. 

“ **Ok people, places. Places**!” Nathalie called out with a megaphone, clipboard firmly in hand. Marinette got up, deciding that Caline would be the best place for her to be. 

It was show time. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	7. Photo Shoot Pt: 3

Moments in time become memories, whether you want them to or not. You _never really know_ exactly which moments will be carved into your brain scape, though you could try to carve them in yourself. Committing every little detail to memory-- the way the dark gray clouds rumbled overhead, spots of sunlight dancing through; the soaked cobblestone and standing puddles, the smell of the wet cement and asphalt; the sound of people bustling as they moved equipment around, a producer or director or _whoever_ aside from Nathalie was directing this whole song and dance sequence that Marinette wasn’t familiar with (it wasn’t actually a song and dance); even committing the way that Adrien and Chloé stood next to each other, complimentary colors while also standing out against the dark gray sky… Committing to how it suddenly seemed like Chloé was an entirely _new_ person. 

She was serious, stoic, shaking her hair free so it could flow in the artificial wind they created with the large, industrial grade fans they set around where the models would be standing, along with flood lights that had been brought in but not turned on yet. 

“Ok, practice shots for lighting.” The main photographer called out, a man maybe older than Marinette herself was (honestly between 18 and 35, it was hard to tell how old people were in this industry), with dark black hair and tinged blue tips that were pulled back into a low ponytail. He had multiple rings on his fingers, and Marinette noticed that his nail polish was crisp black. 

He took a few test shots, Marinette watching with interest as she realized not only was he wearing half-moon shaped glasses but that he also had a golden chain dangling from them so he wouldn’t lose them. 

Marinette thought about wearing hers out and about more than once pairing with outfits, but ultimately always gave up since, 1) she didn’t wear her glasses out in public too often, and 2) she looked like a grandma. 

This guy, though, he made it work. He looked so cool… sleek and put together, like black was his complimentary color and not his mood. He looked elegant, having ditched his tanned frock a moment before and rolling up the sleeves of his button down shirt. 

Marinette’s gaze went back to Chloé and Adrien, watching with interest as they did small poses here and there as the photographer took shot after shot in rapid succession. He took a moment to look at his camera screen, looking over to a monitor set up that was under one of the pop up covers to see a better quality image of what he just shot. 

“Alix,” he pointed to another one of the workers who Marinette wasn’t familiar with. “Turn on that light in front of you and lower it near the ground, pointing upwards.” 

“Right.” The girl called out, setting to work to plug in the lights and loosen the bolts holding the light in place. 

Marinette was fascinated at the whole process; in some of her classes they had mock photo shoots to see how the garments would lay and move in real life, but _this_ … was entirely different. 

Marinette felt incredibly lucky in that moment to be standing here with wet shoes on uncomfortable stone staring wide eyed with the wind blowing through her hair at two _professional_ models with the Louvre in the background. 

It was a surreal experience, almost like a dream. 

“Now.” the director's voice broke out through the murmuring crowd, and in that moment many things happened: Chloé and Adrien did poses, like… too many poses all at once it seemed like; the clouds parted for beams of sunlight to stream through and cast itself over their hair and bathe them in a golden glow; and the photographer snapped his pictures, standing, crouching, kneeling, coming up from an angle, adding golden rings to be held in front of the lens to add… something. Marinette was having a hard time keeping up with them and the images as they flashed over the monitor. Just as quick as it started, it ended with the clouds rolling over and closing once again. 

Marinette released the breath she didn’t realize she had been holding. Adrien and Chloé visibly relaxed, letting their shoulders slump as Chloé leaned against Adrien to shift one of her heels around, and of course Adrien wrapped one of his arms around her to help steady her. 

Marinette knew they were close, previous interactions had proven so, but a thought wandered into her mind briefly… Had they ever dated? _Were_ they dating? That was something Marinette hadn’t even considered yet, it would make sense if they were and just keeping it private since she hadn’t seen anything about them being officially dating on either of their public profiles. 

Was _best friend_ slang for _dating_ now? Marinette felt uneasy at that moment, not sure what she would do if that was true-- be sad for a few days? Her thoughts were dragged out of her mind by Caline coming up next to her, thread and needles in hand. 

“This next outfit change we’ll need to work fast, you’ll be working on Chloé’s dress while I’ll be on Adrien’s suit-” 

“Umm, Caline?” Marinette interrupted her, the woman looked shocked at being interrupted but shook it away. 

“Yes, dear?” 

Marinette shifted uncomfortably then. “Would it be too much trouble to ask if I can do Adrien’s suit instead? I know I’ve worked mostly on Chloé’s dress but I feel more confident on suit stitching at the moment, especially if we need to be fast.” 

Caline looked impressed at this, giving Marinette a smile and a small clap on the shoulder. “Absolutely, thank you for letting me know. I’m impressed with your ability to identify weak points in your skills and know your strengths. We’ll work on more delicate stitching when we get in on Monday, ok?” 

“Ok.” Marinette smiled with relief. Truth be told she was decent at delicate stitching, she just didn’t want to be around Chloé again so soon. With a quick glance towards the changing station, she suppressed a shudder as Sabrina shot goo-goo eyes at Chloé. She definitely didn’t want Sabrina breathing down her neck again. 

The photographer grabbed his camera once again and motioned for the two models to get back into position. Chloé turned her back to the camera before turning at the waist to look back, head tilted back to expose more of her neck, creating dynamic lines with her coat and her shoulders, along with her hair that cascaded down in its delicate waves. 

Marinette briefly wondered if she was staring at Chloé the same way Sabrina was, and shifted on her feet with a quick glance down at her bright red converse. The way Kagami had looked at her yesterday sat heavily on her mind for a brief moment, _“stay away from the models.”_ Her voice echoed. 

She wondered how far down the rabbit hole did that story _actually_ go? How many people had been let go because they were getting too personal with the models? Or vice-versa.

“Ok, come on.” Caline told her, bringing Marinette out of her thoughts. 

“Oh, right.” Marinette mumbled, holding the needle and thread that Caline gave her. The two made their way into the changing cover as Adrien and Chloé came in. The demeanor from earlier completely changed as the two were now in “Work” mode. They split up in their respective areas, Caline and Marinette followed. 

Adrien was already mostly topless in the few strides it took Marinette to enter, and her eyes glazed over his body. It was a typical muscular male model. 

“Ah, hey Marinette.” He smiled at her as he gently laid the suit coat and shirt on a folding table next to them. “Are you embarrassed easily?” He asked as he undid the belt he was wearing. Marinette shook her head but turned around for his benefit. 

“Oh, that’s good.” Adrien said, slipping out of the suit pants and folding them on the table as well. He grabbed a black with green pinstripes suit and pulled it together, tucking in the green silk shirt to the pants. 

“I think suspenders would pair with that better than a belt would.” Marinette commented, having already turned back around. Adrien looked down before smiling his goofy smile. 

“Yeah, but I haven’t worn suspenders since I was a child.” He pulled the coat on over the shirt. Marinette instantly realized where she needed to bring the clothes in to fit him best. 

“Ok, don’t move. Arms out.” She said and stuck a few pins between her lips and looped some thread through a needle, ready to get to work. 

Marinette was concentrating at pinning Adrien’s suit into place, to the point where she had forgotten about her initial worry that Adrien and Chloé were… an _item_. 

It wormed its way through her thoughts though, settling like a coiled snake at the base of her skull and smiled. Marinette hated those types of thoughts, the kind that found their ways back to the forefront of your mind and sat in the pit of your stomach. 

If she didn’t ask, she would never have the courage to do it again. Marinette bit her lip to get her mind back on track-- there’s more important things than wondering if this pretty girl was dating someone. 

“Hey… Adrien?” Marinette asked weakly, hoping he didn’t hear her. 

“Hmm, yeah? What’s up?” He was staring up at the top of the tent. Marinette cursed her curiosity, and her fears. 

“You… are you and Chloé… dating?” She asked lamely. Adrien couldn’t help but look down at her with a raised eyebrow. Marinette looked up at him through the gap of his arms as she was bent down, hemming the legs on his pants at the time. 

“No.” He still seemed confused but shook his head gently. “We’re not.” 

“Oh, good.” Marinette hummed, nodding once and going back to work. Though she did that, Adrien did _not_ stop looking at her. He gave her a smile instead, knowing and smug. 

“ _Good_ , is it?” He mused, Marinette stalled in her movements before looking wide eyed up at Adrien. 

Her face flushed red immediately. Her bottom lip trembled with trying to think of something to say, to defend her comment. But, she swallowed any excuse, any explanation that lived on the tip of her tongue down, and just nodded instead. 

Adrien’s eyes widened as he studied her. He nudged his head back to the divider separating them and Chloé, rising his eyebrows at her. Marinette bit her lip once again, face flushed crimson as she nodded slowly, her lips sealed together tightly. 

Adrien made a silent _“oh”_ sound before straightening up once again, and while Marinette was getting back to work Adrien couldn’t hide his giddy smile. 

_“Wait till Chloé finds out.”_ He thought to himself, suddenly trying to figure out a way to set the two girl’s up together. Adrien already knew that Chloé was flattered at Marientte’s drawings, even if she wouldn’t admit it; if he could just get them in the same room together and they weren’t arguing… that would be progress, right? 

“Done!” Marinette said loud enough for Caline to hear. Adrien smiled to himself again, _me too._

“Great! I’m just finishing up, meet us on location.” Caline called out. Marinette gathered her spare thread and needles, placing them securely back inside her fanny pack and straightening herself out as well, brushing her knees clean. 

“While we wait for them, I wanna introduce you to a few people.” Adrien smiled at her, Marinette tilted her head and looked at him curiously, but she smiled brightly and nodded. 

“Ok!” Who would he introduce her to? There were tons of bodies on the set and she only knew… 5 people? 

Marinette was giddy and tried not to show it, but her smile was large and her heart was thundering. 

“Luka!” Adrien called out, a few of the workers didn’t pay him any mind. Marinette looked around curiously before noticing the photographer putting down his equipment and coming towards them. 

_That_ was _Luka_? 

“Luka, this is my friend Marinette.” Adrien introduced, gesturing to Marinette. She smiled weakly, bringing her hand up for a gentle wave. 

“Hey.” 

“Nice to meet you, Marinette.” Luka smiled charmingly down at her, and she noticed more about him now that they were closer. He had a piercing in his left eyebrow; his ears were gauged; and his eyes were a startling deep blue. “What brings you to our production today?” He spread his arms out in a grand gesture as he looked around, his half moon glasses resting on top of his head now. “Are you enjoying yourself?” 

“Immensely.” Marinette breathed, her own eyes sparkling as she rubbed at her choker. “I’m an intern at _Agreste_ under Caline, and this is my first big-scale photo shoot.” 

“Really?” Luka looked impressed, rubbing his chin in thought. “Big-scale, huh? Have you seen other fashion shoots before?” 

“Yeah, at IFA.” Marinette nodded. “For some of our finals we had to dress models and have them perform on a mock runway, it was a great learning experience but this…” Marinette paused and looked around, eyes alight with joy. “This is on a whole other level.” 

“IFA, you say?” Luka smiled broadly. “My sister models for them, maybe you met her.” 

Marinette paused for a moment, trying to think, but none of the models she knew looked like Luka. 

“Maybe, what’s her name?” 

“Juleka.” Luka smiled easily, having stuffed his hands in his front pants pockets. “She’s 22, forgive my presumptions but you are about that age, aren’t you?” Luka pointed at her. Marinette was surprised but nodded. 

“Yeah, that’s right.” Marinette watched with vague interest as Luka pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and brought one to his lips, fishing his lighter out of his pocket and lighting the cigarette. 

Luka caught Marinette’s eye, before giving her a small smirk and chuckling. “Sorry, it’s a bad habit. I don’t recommend it.” 

He took a drag out of it and blew the smoke away. Adrien checked the watch on his wrist. 

“Good thing you did my suit, considering how long it’s taking Caline to finish Chloé’s dress.” Adrien pointed out. Luka nodded in agreement. 

“That reminds me, who put the bow tie on your last wardrobe change?” Luka looked at Adrien. Adrien smiled largely, taking Marinette around the shoulders and pulling her closer to him. 

“Why, it was Marinette’s great grand idea, actually!” 

“Really?” Luka took another drag, blowing the smoke away from them. “Nice touch, really added the contrast between the light outfits and the light sky, adding more to break up the colors without drawing too much attention away from the overall. Plus, it matched Chloé’s shirt-- which was a nice touch. ” 

Marinette’s eyes hadn’t stopped being wide since Adrien introduced her to Luka, “Yeah… yes! Exactly!” Marinette breathed, becoming excited. Someone else understood! 

“It wasn’t a part of the requisite of the set, so in the future get changes like that approved… but since they were minuscule though added enough to the pictures it should be fine.” Luka pointed out for her. 

“Oh, right.” Marinette didn’t even think about getting Caline’s approval for such an adjustment, even if it was adding something small. Hopefully she didn’t get into trouble for it… 

“If anything gets brought up about it I’ll defend you, say you got it run by me and everything.” Luka winked down at her; if Marinette was back in high school the action would’ve made her blush. An attractive boy, giving her attention? Absolutely; but… university was something else. 

“Actually, Luka.” Adrien spoke up once again. “I was thinking after we were done here for the day, this evening we could go out with the group? Maybe bring Marinette along as well and get her introduced to more people.” 

Marinette stared wide eyed up at Adrien, still tucked into his side with his arm wrapped around her shoulders. Luka looked between the two of them for a moment, before nodding slowly and smiled. 

“Sure thing, it sounds good to me. I’ll see if Juls and Rose will want to come with us.” 

“Oh, Rose!” Adrien smiled largely. “I haven’t seen her in ages.” 

Marinette was lost at this point, but… it would be a _great_ networking opportunity. 

“I would love to come with!” Marinette grinned. 

“Great, we’ll exchange numbers when we’re done here and hash out details later.” Adrien barely got out before an _ahem_ brought their attention behind them. 

Turning around Marinette forgot how to breathe as she saw Chloé, draped in her beautiful gown with lace and delicate beading adorned across it. It looked like a trumpet style dress with a sweetheart neckline on her bodice, and Marinette knew her back was exposed.

Her mouth went dry and she tried not to stare, but it was hard. There was no denying that Chloé was beautiful, and no trying to say otherwise anymore. Marinette tried not to even _think_ about her, but for three days all Chloé has done has danced around in Marientte’s thoughts and dreams. Sitting perched pretty on her little pedestal that Marinette placed her on, much like the first time she saw her. 

Even though Chloé was frowning and had a raised, thin eyebrow, Marinette thought she was beautiful. Pretty sure her mouth was hanging open slightly, too. 

“Great, let’s get this set up.” Luka called out towards Caline. The older woman nodded as she set off towards her work space once again to gather a few more things. 

Both seemed to ignore the look Chloé was giving Adrien and Marinette, hell, even Marinette seemingly didn’t register what it meant. Adrien did though. 

He dropped his arm from around Marinette’s shoulders, while his were brought up slightly--a stance that looked defensive and ashamed. 

“Beautiful.” Marinette commented, her eyes shining. Chloé tilted her head down and brought the gown out to the side, some of the glass beads reflecting the lights. 

Marinette noticed then that Chloé’s hair was… short? In fact, it was a pixie cut. Marinette hadn’t noticed at first since her bangs hadn’t changed much from swooping and gently curling around her face, but the rest of her hair was trimmed short. It looked… wonderful. 

Marinette swallowed thickly. _Oh no, she’s hot._

In fact, with Chloé now missing her signature ponytail it made the shape of the dress and her curves stand out that much more. Her curves were delicate, being accented by strings of pearls that hung carefully around her waist. 

A necklace, thin silver with a blue bead was short and hung above the crest of her breast. 

The silhouette was dramatic, and Chloé was beautiful. 

Marinette didn’t breathe, she didn’t know if she could remember how; Chloé stole her breath, her heart, all that Marinette was Chloé could have in that moment. 

It was terrifying. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, one more chapter in our photo shoot day!


	8. Photo Shoot Pt: 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guy's! With everything going we were unfortunately unable to get this chapter properly edited. I apologize again for being late with the chapter. 
> 
> I do have an announcement though. 
> 
> The story will no longer be updating once weekly but now once every two weeks, so two chapters a month. This does make the story go by slower but with everything going on in the world right now it's needed. When I first put out the first chapter it was initially only going to be a one-shot, but with so much positive attention so soon after I decided to continue into being a full fledged story. When I first started this story I never expected anything to happen this year, to happen. No one was. 
> 
> The story won't be abandoned, I'm almost done writing it, but my editor is also being affected by everything going on, and per our agreement I won't publish chapter's without their approval beforehand, today is an exception.

Marinette couldn’t focus, the rest of the day went by in a blur as she tried to focus on her work-- But Chloé was _too_ distracting. Everywhere Marinette turned Chloé was there, in some form or another. One time, Chloé was literally there standing behind her, another contemplative look on her face. 

Marientte’s cheeks had been red for _hours_ now, she was pretty sure that she was dehydrated because of all of her blushing. 

Marinette stopped often to take gulps of water from her bottle, unaware that during some of these moments there were eyes on her. Namely, Chloé’s. 

“Chloé, eyes over here.” Luka called out, making her eyes snap to where the lifeless lens reflected back at her. It shuttered for a millisecond before opening back up, and even though Chloé stared into the lenses of cameras countless times, this time it felt different. She felt… _exposed_. More exposed than she had during that lingerie shoot she did a few months back for some other company. Chloé did model almost exclusively with _Agreste_ , but she was still a freelance model with an agent. 

Sabrina. 

Chloé tried not to let her face sour at the thought of the other woman as she posed with Adrien taking her hand and leading her in a mock ballroom dance, reflexively Chloé gathered part of her skirt and held it off to the side mainly so it didn’t get stepped on; also, so the details of the skirt could be seen and not hidden in the folds of fabric.

Chloé’s eyes looked up once again, searching for the black buns with daisies wrapped around them. The lights flashed as another picture was taken, but Luka didn’t yell at her this time to look at the camera. 

_There you are_ , Chloé thought as she spotted Marinette not too far away with her head tilted back as she drank her water. Even from here Chloé could see a dribble of water slip from her mouth and drop from her chin, Chloé suddenly felt parched. 

Purely coincidental, _obviously_ . Adrien led them into another turn to music that wasn’t playing, but it kept them moving and Chloé’s feet were killing her standing on uneven ground with such thin heels-- at least moving allowed her to shift her weight, so she wasn’t complaining and Luka wasn’t yelling at them to _stop_. 

Chloé dipped her head back as Adrien leaned her into a dip, she extended her leg out so the skirt could be pulled up and shown. As they righted themselves and went back into the movements of ballroom dancing, Chloé noticed Marinette watching them wide mouth agape. 

Two sets of blue eyes connected for a brief moment; Adrien led them into a spin, by the time Chloé found Marinette again she was looking away. 

It was a shame, really. Chloé enjoyed looking at her outfit… _and her face_ , but whatever. It was a nice outfit, very fitting for the theme of the day (even if they hadn’t gotten to it… yet). 

By this time Marinette had ditched her leather jacket (which was very stylish, Chloé would wear something like that… if it was pink), and the body suit and overalls she was wearing were form fitting and looked… really nice. Marinette was smaller in height than Chloé was, but Marinette was curvier than Chloé, which was a bit surprising… especially with how much Chloé paid attention to that sort of thing when it came to Marinette. 

Let’s just say Marinette filled out her overalls _nicely_ , and that fanny pack? Chic. 

Chloé looked at Adrien once again, eyebrows knitted together. What was that earlier, with his arm around her shoulders? 

_I thought he liked Kagami…_ Chloé pursed her lips at this thought. Marinette was… _new_ , and Adrien was _curious_ about newcomers. 

Chloé glanced back over at Marinette, the woman had sat down on a pop up stool and gathered a dress Chloé hadn’t seen before in her lap, and was doing delicate stitching with it. 

She took this moment to study her more, Marinette’s eyebrows were pinched in concentration while her lips were tight lined with needles sticking out of them. Her fingers were delicate, weaving between the fabric delicately. Caline came up next to the younger woman and carefully pointed something out, fingers trailing down the fabric. 

Chloé was fixated on Marinette’s hands, delicate and elegant. Not words she would use to describe the other woman, she realized starkly. Even with the limited interactions Chloé had with Marinette, _delicate_ and _elegant_ did not describe her _at all_ . She was fierce, feisty, kind, determined, beautiful, impulsive, and… and shy. Chloé thought back to the unsure look and worrying of Marinette’s lip from yesterday when Chloé brought her backpack to her. Chloé was also trying _not_ to think about the weird kiss to her hand Marinette did… or how apparently Marinette was drawing her. No, Chloé was actively trying _not to think of any of that._

What was she hiding in her sketchbook? 

Marinette was still very much so an enigma. 

“Ok, outfit swap!” Luke called out to them, bringing Chloé out of her thoughts. 

“You ok?” Adrien asked her softly, holding her hands in his. His head was near hers, but she slowly backed away. 

“Umm, yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?” She didn’t meet his eyes, which concerned him even more. 

“You… kinda blanked out there for a minute.” Adrien kept her hands in his, squeezing hers gently. Chloé knew he was worried about her, and she squeezed his back gently. 

“Yeah, yeah I’m ok.” Chloé told him while letting go of his hands. From the corner of her eye she could see Marinette and Caline heading over. 

“Caline,” Adrien called as he started to walk over to the changing area, Chloé followed a moment or two behind him, eyes looking at Marinette but hers were facing towards Adrien. “I had a question about my next piece and was hoping you could shed some light about it?” 

“Of course, Adrien.” She opened the private area, ushering him in first. 

That meant-- _No_. Chloé pushed the thought out of her head. It doesn’t matter what it means, both of them are here for a job. 

Marinette faltered as _she_ realized what that meant. Chloé sighed in exasperation, marching forward with determination to just get this done and _over_ with. 

Who _cares_ if Marinette was pretty and fun to mess with and _embarrass_ , this was just business. Chloé had changed in front of countless other people before, along with having lingerie shoots, nude shoots, _perfume commercials_ where she exited a pool in a lavish golden swimsuit and perfect makeup and said something stupid like “adore me.” 

Point is, why was she so nervous about Marinette seeing her change? 

Chloé pushed the thoughts even further from her mind. Marinette entered shortly after she did, her hands twisting around themselves as she bit her lip. Marinette’s eyes were downcast; _usually_ Chloé liked that in an attendant, that meant that they were submissive, _weak._ But in Marinette it was downright infuriating. 

“Look at me.” Chloé demanded of her, her tone cold. The hushed voices next door that were only separated by a canvas divider silenced. Marinette lifted her eyes, shining from tears and her face flamed red. 

Whatever Chloé had done she instantly regretted. _Why_ was she crying? The redness in Marientte’s face and the red rim around her eyes made her blue eyes stand out more brilliantly, and Chloé was taken aback by the sight and her own panic bubbling up to the surface. This wasn’t the first time she’s dealt with a crying woman, in fact many times before she was the one to have caused the tears-- but these were _different_. The sight of Marinette’s shaking hands and red eyes made Chloé want to grab her hands and soothe her, calm her down. 

That’s what Adrien always did for her, at least. Chloé tentatively moved to grasp Marinette’s hands, waiting for her to pull back or move or say _something_ \-- but… she didn’t. Marinette didn’t say anything, she was frozen in place though her hands trembled. 

“ _Hey_ ,” Chloé said softly, kicking her heels off so they could be closer to the same height. “Is this ok?” Chloé’s hands were still and solid in Marinette’s shaking ones, she had noticed that Marientte’s hands were soft in some places but had calluses on her finger pads. 

_No time to get distracted, Chloé!_ She chided herself internally as she watched intently at Marientte’s face, waiting for a nod or a shake or _something_. 

Marinette swallowed thickly and gave a slight nod. Chloé relaxed her shoulders and carefully rubbed circles with her thumb on the back of Marinette’s hands. 

“Ok, focus on me. Let’s breathe.” Chloé’s voice was low, “ready?” it took a moment for Marinette to nod, but she did. Marientte’s eyes were fixated solely on the ground in front of them, but Chloé wasn’t going to push it right now. 

“Ok. Deep breaths.” Chloé sucked in some air, Marinette did the same. “Hold it, 1… 2… 3… Exhale.” They breathed out together, and now being so close to her Chloé realized that Marinette smelled sweet, like crepes and honey bread. “Let’s do it again.” 

Marinette nodded softly, “Ok. Again. Deep breaths.” They repeated the process two times before Marinette would finally meet eyes with Chloé again. 

Chloé couldn’t help the smile that crawled from the corners of her mouth as she did. Marinette’s face was still flushed red, but she smiled softly as well. 

“Better?” Chloé tried to make sure her voice was low as the two stood closer together now, Marientte’s hands firmly gripped in her own like Chloé was the only thing tethering her to the earth. 

“Y-yeah…” Marientte’s voice broke for a moment before she cleared her throat. “Thank you.” They locked gazes again, this time though something was… different. 

“Adrien does this for me sometimes, I-” Chloé was embarrassed to admit it. “I’ve never done this for anyone else.” 

Marinette was confused for a moment. Chloé’s cheeks reddened as her own embarrassment grew. 

“Ya know… comforted someone?” She said through clenched teeth. Marinette gripped her hands again for a moment before releasing them. 

“You did great.” 

They stood awkwardly now, Marinette rubbing her arms and Chloé unsure what to do now. 

“W-what was… that?” Marinette rubbed the back of her neck as Chloé asked her the question. 

“I, umm, just got overwhelmed for a bit and, umm…” she didn’t know how to keep going. Chloé held her hand up to stop. 

“I won’t say anything.” 

The relief on Marinette’s face and the smile that followed sent a jolt through Chloé’s spine, accompanied by the blush on her cheeks. 

“A-anyways,” she stuttered, turning around so her exposed back was to Marinette. “Can you help me out of this so we can continue?” 

Marinette’s smile was small and strained, but she agreed as she undid small hooks at the base of the dress. The material had lace delicately placed along the top, small flowers peeked out and stared at Marinette in the face. 

Along with Chloé’s back dimples. Marinette tried to ignore them, but _Dimples of Venus_ were a part of the human body that Marinette… appreciated. Not everyone had them, Marinette herself being one, and they were… nice. 

Marinette shook her head and continued to carefully undo Chloé’s dress. 

“Ok,” Marinette lifted her hands away from it. Chloé had a hold of the front as she moved towards a folding table much like the one on Adrien’s side. Marinette looked at the rack of clothing lining the wall next to them. 

“You have more clothes than Adrien.” Marinette commented, casting a quick glance over and seeing the dress on the ground. Chloé was wearing a pair of lace white underwear, and with a flaming face Marinette looked away. 

“Yeah, Gabriel is focusing on more fashion designs for women this last year. Means I have more stable work, so I’m not complaining.” Chloé shrugged as she gathered her next outfit that had already been laid out for her by the stylist. 

As Marinette looked around she saw a wig sitting on a vanity next to trays of makeup. It was the hair Chloé was wearing earlier. 

Marinette looked back then, seeing a cropped silk shirt and a loose pair of jeans on Chloé. “How long have you had your hair cut?” 

Chloé stalled at the question, looking at Marinette from over her shoulder. She shrugged, slipping on a jean jacket. 

“For awhile. I personally prefer long hair, but-” she paused again, looking for something on the table. A small necklace sat underneath a beanie, which Chloé picked up and began to put the necklace on around her neck. Marinette noticed the other necklace Chloé had just been wearing, the one with the blue bead, now sat next to the beanie. 

“Here,” Marinette came up, taking the necklace from Chloé and latching it. Her fingers trailed lightly across the back of Chloé’s neck, sending shivers down her spine. 

“Ahem,” Chloé cleared her throat to hide her red cheeks. _What is with me today?_ “Short hair is just easier with modeling, if the look requires long hair I can just wear a wig. With long hair I could also wear a wig but it was… _uncomfortable_.” Marinette nodded like she understood, but she didn’t. 

Marinette studied Chloé’s outfit, finger tapping on her chin. “Quick note.” 

“Ok?” Chloé crossed her arms, eyebrows raised. 

  
“Pretty sure you need shoes.” Marinette pointed down at Chloe’s feet, which were bare on the ground. Chloé groaned out, shooting Marinette a glare. 

“I haven’t put them on yet, _obviously!_ ” Marinette shrugged innocently, smiling despite herself. Gone was the trembling girl from moments before, and instead stood a teasing woman. 

“Really? My mistake.” 

Chloé wanted to be mad, but she couldn’t. 

“You ready, Chloé?” Adrien called over, Chloé found a pair of tennis shoes and slipped them on. 

“Yeah, just got done.” She called back over, checking her reflection in the mirror and ruffled her bangs a bit and fluffed up the bits in the back of her hair. 

Marinette stood waiting at the front for her, and the two exited the tent together. As they made their way over to set, Marinette noticed that Adrien was dressed similarly to Chloé-- though his shirt wasn’t silk like hers… and he was wearing a beanie. 

“Chloé you’re missing your hat.” Marinette commented as they approached the group, remembering how her necklace was hiding underneath it. Chloé groaned. 

“Right, ok-” as she was turning to go back and get it, Marinette held her hands up. 

“Wait, I’ll go grab it. You stay here and go over poses.” 

Chloé’s shocked expression made it seem like this wasn’t an expected gesture. 

“I’ll be right back.” Marinette smiled at Chloé, meeting Luka’s eyes from behind as Nathalie approached with a clipboard. Marinette took her leave when Chloé turned back to meet up with Luka and Adrien; she jogged the slight distance over to the changing tent, not realizing that the entrance to Chloé’s side wasn’t closed properly like it was when they left. 

Marinette entered easily, but stalled when she saw someone else in Chloé’s room.

Sabrina. She jumped when Marinette came in, and _that_ she didn’t miss. Though her back was turned, her phone out as she was seemingly crouched over the table where Chloé’s worn clothes were. 

“What are you doing?” Marinette asked uneasily, crossing her arms to feel bigger than she really was. Sabrina straightened up, turning and placing her hand on her hip. 

“Oh, it’s just you.” Sabrina muttered, adjusting her glasses and giving Marinette a sneer. “ _I’m_ Chloé’s manager, I’m allowed in here whenever I _want_ . _What are you doing here?_ ” 

Marinette didn’t like Sabrina, not at all. Though picking fights on your third day wasn’t a way to make an impression. 

“Yeah, about that… I’m the assistant of Caline, I’m _also_ allowed in here whenever I want.” Marinette took purposeful steps forward, standing right in front of Sabrina as she gave the other woman a glare. “Funny how that works, isn’t it?” Sabrina fumed, face red but in anger, and it offset her red hair unpleasantly. “I’m just here to give Chloé her hat. I don’t care what you’re doing.” 

Marinette reached past her, grabbing the gray hat from the table and turning quickly to leave the tent. 

Sabrina gave her the creeps. 

The tent behind her now Marinette approached Chloé, the gray beanie clenched tightly between her hands. What even _was_ that? Was that… common?

“Hey, there you are.” Chloé approached her as the others in the group started to disperse. “Thanks for grabbing that.” With an outstretched hand Chloé made to grab it, but Marinette held it for a moment longer. 

“Something weird just happened-” Marinette was cut off as Nathalie cleared her throat, Marinette handed the beanie to Chloé, and even helped her fix her bangs after she put it on. 

“I’m sure it was nothing,” Chloé said dismissively even when Marientte’s hands were brushing her bangs out of her eyes. “Weird things happen on set all the time.” 

Marinette nodded, though she frowned once Chloé turned away from her. 

“This is going to be the last set.” Caline came up next to Marinette, arms crossed as she watched the two models get into place. “Then you can head home while we pack up.” 

“I can stay and help.” Marinette offered eagerly, not wanting to go home just yet. Caline seemed a bit surprised at her offer, and gave her a gentle smile. 

“Thank you, Marinette. We’ll take all the help we can get to pack up.” 

Chloé tried not to look at Marinette _too_ much, and more than once had Luka had to snap to get her attention. 

“Adrien!” Luka snapped and called in frustration this time. “Goodness you two, do we need to take lunch?” 

Chloé could hear Adrien’s stomach growl from above her, as she was crouched on the cobblestone and Adrien was leaning above her. 

“Noooo.” Adrien whined, and even from where she was Chloé could imagine the tears streaming down his face as he thought about food. Speaking of, Chloé was a bit hungry herself. 

“We’re almost done.” Luka called out. “Let’s focus so we can knock these out.” 

The rest of the shoot passed by with relative ease, and this last set (with minor wardrobe changes to it) didn’t last nearly as long as the first two had, taking about 4 hours in total for Marinette (not accounting for tear down, but that didn’t take long either). 

Chloé and Adrien sighed in relief, giving each other high fives once Luka called it a day. 

“Good work today,” Adrien grinned down at her. “We’re gonna head out tonight, wanna come?” 

Chloé didn’t even think twice before answering. “God, yes. Where at and who all is coming?” 

Adrien grinned as they continued to hold hands, walking towards the changing tents. “Luka, obviously. He’s gonna see if Juleka and Rose can come tonight, I’m going to try to get a hold of Kim-- I think Alix wants to come.” Adrien tapped his chin. 

Chloé’s eyes widened. “A big party tonight.” She hummed, Adrien leveled her with a look before squeezing her hand in his a bit tighter. 

“Please don’t tell Sabrina.” He just about begged, with the tone of his voice and the way he did his puppy dog eyes the only thing he was missing was on his knees, hands clasped together in her favor. 

“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Chloé grumbled, suppressing a shiver thinking about her manager. “I don’t know why I haven’t fired her yet, she’s so…” 

“Sabrina.” Adrien dead panned. Chloé nodded, but there the woman was standing in front of them-- large smile behind round glasses, bright orange hair and all. Her eyes glanced down to their joined hands, and a little tick could be seen at the corner of her mouth. 

  
  


“Are we done for the day?” Sabrina asked cheerfully, clasping her hands together near her cheek. 

“Yup. Time to get dressed and head home.” Adrien said easily, but the look Sabrina shot him made him tighten his lips. 

“Great, well Chloé I was hoping that you and I could go over some new prospects this afternoon-” 

“What?” Chloé seemed confused, her hand dropping from Adrien’s. “My contract with _Agreste_ just got renewed for another year, _why_ do I need new prospects already?” 

Sabrina paused, before her smile creaked back onto her face. “You never know with jobs like these, it’s best to have contingency plans in place-” 

“We’re going to have to touch base later then,” Chloé waved her hand towards Sabrina. “I’ll call you.” 

Sabrina’s hands lowered to her sides and she frowned at Chloé, Adrien noticed her fists clench at her sides though. 

“Great.” Sabrina’s smile was back in place and it unnerved Adrien, to the point where he even took a step back from her. Chloé stayed still though, not budging an inch. “I look forward to hearing back from you _soon_.” 

Chloé grabbed Adrien’s hand once again and dragged him off towards the changing tent, eager to get out of Sabrina’s presence. 

Once they were inside with the door closed, Adrien breathed a sigh of relief as he turned to Chloé. “ _I don’t like her_.” He said through clenched teeth. 

Chloé dropped his hand and crossed her arms across her chest, shrinking back away from him. “I’m not her biggest fan either but she’s really helped me over this last year--” 

Adrien pinched the bridge of his nose. “Chlos, she’s _weird_.” 

Chloé frowned at that. “Adrikins, she’s fine. Everything is fine.” With that, she left for her side. 

Adrien stood still for a moment before he moved to change on his side as well. 

“I’ll text you the place and time.” Adrien called to her from his side of the divider, though she did not respond immediately. 

“Ok.” Chloé said after a moment, looking under the piles of clothes for her missing necklace. “Hey, you haven’t seen my necklace, have you?” 

“You’re not wearing it?” Adrien’s voice was muffled, like he had his head stuck in his shirt again. 

“No, I’m not.” Chloé chewed at her bottom lip, cursing after a moment once she realized that she wiped away a bit of her lipstick. She leaned towards her vanity, finding a makeup wipe to clean off the rest of her makeup from her face and wiping it off with a bottle of water and a paper towel next to her. 

Weird, Chloé could’ve sworn it was right there... 

With Marinette helping the last van get packed up filled with the clothes after Adrien and Chloé emerged from their tent, she dusted off her hands and looked around the now empty plaza. 

Adrien parted from Chloé, but the blonde girl didn’t move. She was wearing normal clothes but no wig; black pants, little brown booties, a white t-shirt and... the jean jacket. Marientte’s feet moved on their own towards her, determined steps on the cobblestone as she approached Chloé. 

“Hey,” Marinette called out as she neared. Chloé tensed but relaxed as she looked over her shoulder. Marinette’s heart skipped a beat as she realized Chloé wasn’t wearing any makeup, and her eyes looked red rimmed and tired. “Is everything ok?” 

Chloé nodded slowly, shaking hands as she brought out a pack of cigarettes. 

Marinette stalled, not knowing Chloé to be a smoker. “Your hands are shaking, that doesn’t look ok.” Chloé shook her head at her. 

“I just misplaced my necklace, is all.” 

“The one with the blue bead?” Marinette asked her softly. Chloé stared wide eyed at Marinette before lighting the cigarette and taking a drag off of it. 

“Yeah,” she said tightly before she exhaled away from the other girl. “That’s the one… Do you smoke?” 

Marinette shook her head no. 

“It’s a bad habit.” Chloé shrugged, before sighing and placing her palm against her forehead. “You guys didn’t find it when you were packing up, did you?” Again, Marinette shook her head. “Figured.” 

“I’ll keep my eyes out for it.” Marinette promised her. Chloé gave the woman a tight lipped smile. 

“Don’t bother, it’s not important.” Chloé replied, trying to sound calm though her voice wavered. She stuck the cigarette between her lips and dug her phone out of her pocket and checked the screen. 

A grimace made its way onto Chloé’s face as she put the phone back in her pocket. 

Marinette gently took Chloé’s free hand in her own like Chloé had done for her just an hour or so before, and gently rubbed circles on the back of it. 

They stood there for a moment longer, even as the vans departed and the staff left, they were the only two left in the courtyard of the Louvre from the photo shoot. 

Marinette didn’t want to leave her when she was… like this. 

“Do you want some company?” Marinette smiled at her softly, slowly stopping rubbing circles in the back of her hand but keeping her thumb there. 

Chloé stared at her for a moment, but there wasn’t any emotion behind the gaze. It was serious, and searching. She sighed finally, removing her hand from Marientte’s as her shoulders slumped. 

“Go _home,_ Dupain-Cheng.” Chloé said finally, crossing her arms tightly across her chest, to protect against the wind as it picked up, walking away from Marinette. 

And then, she was alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the support of the story, and I'm sorry about the new update schedule.


	9. Getting Ready

Marinette laid on her bed staring up at the ceiling, counting the glow in the dark stars as if she didn’t put them up there herself. She sighed heavily, not being able to shake the slump she got herself in. 

Chloé may have been the cause, but Marinette was the one that truly put herself in it. Unmet expectations were the killer of all moods. 

It really was her own fault though-- Marinette _thought_ there was… _something_ there between them, a sort of understanding. When Marinette had that panic attack _Chloé_ was the one to help bring her out of it, she was just hoping that she could’ve done the same for her. 

Everyone deals with their emotions differently, but Adrien seemed to be Chloé’s support system and it looked like she didn’t even _tell him_ what was wrong. 

Marinette rolled over in bed, grabbing one of her pillows and dragging it towards her chest. Tikki was curled up next to Marinette, purring contentedly against her back (which helped soothe Marinette’s racing thoughts). 

There was such an _understanding_ between them earlier, _what happened_?

Was it the necklace? Marinette tried to remember when she last saw it, and could only think about glancing at it when they were changing into the last outfit. 

Her phone buzzed next to her then, pulling Marinette’s musings away from dangerous territory. 

“Hello?” Marinette said, not recognizing the number. 

_“Hey, Marinette?”_ a voice replied on the other side that she didn’t immediately recognize. 

“Umm, yes? Who is this?” 

_“Oh, sorry. It’s Adrien, still want to go out tonight?”_

_Oh, right._ Marinette hummed, looking out her window as the clouds moved lazily about, still angry and gray, but it seemed to have stopped raining… for now. 

“Yeah, actually. That sounds good.” 

_“Great, we’re going to meet up at the Ladybug tonight around 8.”_

_Ladybug_ was a newer club that opened up about a month ago and got _a lot_ of buzz, it also helped that it was near the iconic _Moulin Rouge_. 

“Ok, I’ll meet you inside?” Marinette draped her arm over her eyes, already dreading the energy output that would be needed. It was a _Saturday_ , it’s going to be _packed_. 

_“Great! We’ll see you there! We’re going to try to get a place on one of the top floors so if you can’t find us that’s where we’ll be.”_

Marinette’s thoughts trailed to typical club activities, like dancing and drinking. She couldn’t imagine Adrien being drunk. “Sounds good, see you tonight.” 

_“See you!”_

The line hung up and she was once again in the quiet. It was about 3 now, so she had 5 hours before she was supposed to be there, and it was going to take a little bit to get there by bus… and then who knew how long the line would be…

Marinette sighed as she rolled over fully and brought Tikki to her chest instead of the pillow. Tikki made a sound about being disturbed then promptly fell back asleep, purring contentedly. 

What was she even going to _wear?_

Dancing? Chunky heels, probably her boots. She should bring a small hand bag for hair spray and a lighter, along with her dummy pack of cigarettes. Maybe another fanny pack instead? She did have a few different kinds and it’s harder to lose. She had a chic black leather one that wrapped around her calf _and_ her waist. 

Marinette got up, but she kissed Tikki’s head first before she did. Marinette then sat at her vanity, carefully undoing the daisies and her space buns, letting her hair tumble down her back. 

Taking her hair brush she carefully brushed through the knots that formed throughout the day of movement. 

Marinette put her brush down and checked her reflection in the mirror, seeing her barely puffy eyes and realizing how exhausted she was. She patted at her cheeks to get some redness throughout her face and tried to smile brightly at her reflection. 

A bit of improvement, but she still looked how she felt-- _off_. 

Marinette turned to look at Tikki still curled sound asleep on her bed, and Marinette nodded. 

“You’ve got the right idea, Tikki.” Marinette said after a moment, crawling back into bed. She already dressed in comfy clothes after her mother allowed her to come upstairs, asking a million and one questions while she did. 

Marinette was more than happy to answer _almost_ all of them, but this weirdness persisted even then and she had excused herself after a little while. 

A nap would be good, especially if tonight was going to be a late night. 

* * *

Marinette was awoken by her phone buzzing, bleary eyed she checked it and saw a waiting message from Adrien. 

_“Hey, want a ride?”_

_“_ Sure! What time?” 

_“In two hours?”_

“Sounds good, pick me up at this address….” 

Marinette didn’t want him to stop by her house and notice the bakery, so instead she gave him the address of one of the entrances to the Eiffel tower. 

Marinette knew it was a _silly_ reason, but too many times people expected things from her. Most of the time it wouldn’t have been an issue, but it got taken advantage of in university so… she just stopped. 

It was almost 6, so Marinette realized that she had been able to sleep for almost 3 hours… which was nice. She stretched and yawned, looking about her room and seeing that it was still light outside. 

“Ok, Tikki. What should I wear?” She rubbed the back of her head and looked at the cat as she stayed snoozing. “Hmm, you’re right.” Marinette nodded at her cat’s intense wisdom. 

She got up and padded over to her closet, her feet cold against the wooden floors. She noticed the body suit Alya had let her borrow, and that was pretty cute and would keep her comfortable.

Ok, so she couldn’t _only_ wear the body suit, and she didn’t want to just wear what she wore to the photo shoot today again. 

Besides to an upscale club like _Ladybug_ that might be a little weird. “It would be nice to know what other people are wearing… Or who all would be there.” Marinette pouted, looking into her closet. “I’m a fashion designer, I should be able to just pick an outfit and call it fashion.” She groaned, rubbing her face. 

It ruined any makeup she had on previously. 

“It’s been raining all day so it’ll probably be colder tonight, but it might be warm there.” Marinette rubbed her chin as she stared into her open closet. Tikki made a sound and stretched, jumping down and rubbing herself against Marinette’s legs. 

“Pants, huh?” Marinette bent down and pet TIkki’s head, “That’s pretty safe.” Marinette dragged out a pair of blue skinny jeans and hung them on one of the series of hooks next to her closet. “Ok, what about a top?” 

Tikki looked up at Marinette with her big blue eyes and gave out a single meow. Marinette bent down and looked at Tikki in the eyes. 

“I don’t know what you just said.” 

Tikki meowed again, beginning to bathe herself. “Watch your attitude, Missy!” Marinette fake huffed but Tikki ignored her. 

Marinette stared helplessly into her closet. 

“How about something with a low back… I don’t know how much dancing I’ll be doing tonight, though.” Marinette brought out a silk shirt that had a thin neck and loose hanging fabric in the front. It was a cute shirt, but it would cause issues. 

So, not that one. 

She brought out another silk shirt with an open back and studs on the arms, but she put that one back too. Marinette tapped her chin before digging into a few drawers of a dresser in her closet, she brought out a black corset with black flowers embroidered into the material, and with low hanging shoulders of a soft, comfortable material. 

“I could tuck this into the waistband of the jeans, and have my chunky heels, pair it with my black leather bag…” Marinette murmured to herself as she undressed. 

“Now, which first. Corset or pants?” She placed her hands on her hips and looked expectantly down at Tikki, who didn’t acknowledge her and continued to bathe herself. 

“You’re right, pants.” 

* * *

Marinette stood out by one of the entrances to the Eiffel Tower, teeth chattering as she convinced herself that it was going to be warmer in the club. A black car pulled up not too long after she got there, and Adrien poked his head out. 

“Hey stranger, you look nice.” He eyed her up and down, and if Marinette wasn’t convinced he didn’t like her like _that,_ this would be him checking her out. 

“Edgy, I like it.” He got out and opened up the passenger side door for her. 

Marinette slid in; she did go with the skinny jeans, black corset, chunky black heels, her black fanny pack that wrapped around her waist and one of her thighs, her hair down instead of up in her usual pigtails, a bold red lip and light shimmer to her eyelids. 

“Is it too much?” She asked after Adrien slid back into the sports car; Marinette hadn’t realized it at first because it was a black car… and it was night… but sitting in it now she could tell that it was more than just a common town car. 

“Nah, I like it!” Adrien grinned, and Marinette was rather relieved to see that he was wearing black slacks and a green shirt-- so she didn’t feel out of place already. 

“I’m going to be honest, I’m kind of nervous.” Marinette squeezed her seat belt after she fastened it, and they were off. 

“I’ll be nearby if that comforts you any! In fact if you want I won’t leave your side.” Adrien grinned though he didn’t turn to her. 

“Yeah, actually. I just don’t go… to clubs... a lot.” 

“We usually don’t either, but it seemed like a cause for celebration!” He was always grinning, smiling, or _happy_. How did he have the energy to maintain that? 

Marinette didn’t say anything more as they continued along; Paris was the city of lights for a reason, and even on ground level they were gorgeous. 

Every town had their darker side, but Paris had its charm. 

It didn’t take them too long to get to the _Ladybug_ actually, which was surprising. Even more surprising was that Adrien pulled up in front of the club and got a valet to park his car for him (After helping Marinette out of course). 

Marinette gawked at the line to get in, it stretched the length of the block easily. 

“Coming?” Adrien asked her, she turned around to him in surprise as she was getting ready to make the long trek to the back of the line. 

Adrien had gestured right to the front door, and Marinette gulped. “Sure.” 

“Remember, confidence is key. My piece of advice is to fake it till you make it, literally everyone else is.” 

“Really?” Marinette asked in amazement as she walked next to him. He nodded. 

“ _I_ sure am! Chloé usually is, too. So are a bunch of our friends-- except for Luka, he’s…” Adrien trailed off. “I’m not sure what Luka is.” 

“Chloé?” Marinette asked in amazement, not even realizing that the bodyguard let them through without a second glance. The blast of music was instant, and the overwhelming smell of perfume was pungent. 

“ **OH YEAH, SHE EXUDES AN AIR OF CONFIDENCE BUT SHE DOESN’T KNOW WHAT THE HELL SHE’S DOING EITHER**.” Adrien yelled at Marinette, which she winced at. 

This was going to take some getting used to… 

“ **DO WE REALLY HAVE TO YELL TO TALK TO EACH OTHER?** ” Marinette yelled back to him, hand cupped over her mouth to direct her voice more so towards him. 

“ **WHAT?** ” He asked, and Marinette was going to take that to mean _yes_. To make sure they didn’t lose each other in the crowd, Adrien grabbed her hand and led her through the full club, heading towards stairs on the far side, up the first flight of stairs and then there was another set along the wall where a security guard and rope were stationed. 

Adrien walked forward, smiling his charming way and tussling his hair from its hairspray confines. 

“James! Glad to see you tonight, are you back now?” 

The security guard looked down at the two of them, his eyes lingered on Adrien for a moment and Marinette thought that whatever Adrien was trying to accomplish he would fail at. Though her worries were swayed when the guard smiled brightly and grabbed Adrien’s hand in a shake. 

“Good to see you! I’m finally back after Adeline had the baby.” 

“Oooohhhh, do you have any pictures?” Adrien asked eagerly, coming and standing next to James as he fished his personal cell out of trouser’s pocket. Marinette stood awestruck at the two of them. 

Adrien really was like this _everywhere_ wasn’t he? 

After a few moments of the two grown men cooing and awing at the screen James turned his phone around for Marinette to see as well. Marinette had to admit, the dark curls and bright brown eyes on the baby were pretty adorable. 

“Need up?” James asked, gesturing to the open area at the top of the roped off stairs. 

“Yup! Here to meet some friends and introduce my new friend around.” Adrien gripped Marinette’s shoulder, and she waved awkwardly. 

“Do you work at Agreste with Adrien?” James asked as he opened up the rope and stepped to the side. Marinette nodded at him as they passed. 

“Yeah, but I’m just an intern.” Marinette commented, James looked curiously at her. 

“No interns have come before.” Marinette turned to look at Adrien at the comment, and he shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. 

“Adrien if I didn’t know any better I would think you liked me.” Marinette jabbed him in the stomach with her elbow, Adrien winced a bit but laughed it off as they ascended the stairs. 

“I like you as a friend, Marinette.” He grinned down at her, but there was a bit of longing in his eyes as he looked at her. “My heart is captured by someone else, someone who doesn’t even talk to me.” He sighed wistfully, looking out over the club. 

They got to the top of the stairs and he still was looking out over the club. From up here at least the music (and the smells) weren’t over bearing, and Marinette did have to admit that the lights and the holographic designs on the floor were cool. 

“Why don’t you talk to her?” Marinette asked him after a moment, Adrien looked in surprise down at her. 

“Talk to her?” Marinette nodded at him, he shrugged. “I try, but she’s always so busy… and there’s that rule at work where we shouldn’t date our coworkers…” 

“So it’s a coworker, huh?” Marinette grinned slyly at him. “Are you even friends with her?” 

A blush had started to coat Adrien’s cheeks as he grumbled, his shoulders raising up to hide his face a bit from her. 

“No… can’t really be friends with someone if you don’t talk to them.” 

“Do… you know _anything_ about her?” Adrien shrugged at her question. 

“She likes fencing.” 

Marinette was confused then, not a lot of people she knew of did fencing, only Kagami did as far as she knew of-- _OH._

The spark lit in her eyes and Adrien saw it too. 

“No, no I know what you’re thinking and it’s not who you think-” 

“But it _is,_ ” Marinette breathed, eyes alight with excitement. “Isn’t it?” 

Adrien didn’t say anything more as he turned to look back on the open third floor where they were, he saw a few people sitting around a table and he waved at them. “Oh look, our group is already here!” He sped walked away from her, and Marinette was too shy to call out to him about him brushing off her question. 

Later, that would be a later conversation. 

There was a small group of people sitting on two half moon couches around a circular glass table, a couple of them glancing up as Adrien approached.

Adrien slid in next to Luka, who didn’t look like he changed out of what he wore at the photo shoot earlier. Actually, now that Marinette could see him a bit easier it looked like Luka fell asleep in his clothes and rolled out of bed to come here-- not that it was a bad look or anything, that’s just what it reminded her of. 

There was someone else sitting next to Luka that Marinette didn’t immediately recognize, he was a tall and lean black man, his hair in tight curls and he was dressed rather casually with a branded red polo and what looked like gray slacks. 

There were two girls sitting across from them, a blonde girl with a round face and bright blue eyes, her hair was shoulder length with her bangs pinned above her head in a little poof. With an arm around her shoulders was a taller and slimmer woman with stark black hair but a bright purple streak through her bangs. 

Marinette recognized the hair. 

“Mari?” Juleka asked before smiling. Marinette was relieved to see a familiar face. 

“Juli!” The two women embraced, “Luka I do know your sister!” Marinette grinned up at her; even though Marinette was wearing heels, Juleka had always been a taller woman. 

“See, I thought you did.” He said as he swirled an amber liquid around in his glass. “Speaking of introductions... this is Max, he works with me in our tech department.” Luka motioned to the man next to him, he waved and smiled. 

“Hey.” 

“Nice to meet you,” Marinette was buzzing with nervousness and excitement, this wasn’t going to be so bad. 

“My partner Kim is around here somewhere, grabbing us some more drinks I think.” Max vaguely gestured around the area. 

Marinette grinned as she sat down next to Juleka. 

“Marinette, this is my girlfriend, Rose!” Juleka said after a moment, her arm snacking around the blonde girl’s shoulders. Rose leaned heavily into Juleka’s shoulders as the blonde woman brought her hand out and touched Marinette’s arm gently. 

“Nice to meet you!” She replied, bright eyed and bushy tailed and Marinette could already tell that Rose had too much energy that she couldn’t keep up with. Having known Juleka as well, Marinette wondered how she kept up with Rose. 

“Nice to meet you too! When I was in school I did a couple projects and Juleka modeled for my designs!” 

“That’s so cool! I used to work at _Agreste_ with Juleka, but we started dating and they didn’t like that so we left.” Rose shrugged, Marinette looked at Juleka with a curious head tilt and Juleka shrugged. Rose was… pretty open.

“She’s already had a few drinks.” Juleka leaned over and whispered to Marinette, who nodded like this was an everyday occurrence. “Though she’s usually this chipper anyways, and open… and you know what not much changes whether or not she has a few drinks or not.” 

“Hey I’m back-” a tall man came up holding two flutes of colored drinks. He was an attractive man, with a chiseled jaw and strong neck, wide shoulders, and short brown hair with blonde tips. 

“Marinette, this is my partner, Kim.” Max explained, lovingly touching the other man’s hand as he sat down on the end next to Max. 

“Nice to meet you Kim.” Marinette said, Kim tilting his head in greeting. 

“Nice to meet you too… Marinette, was it?” 

“Yeah! I’m an intern at Agreste right now-” 

“Oh, nice. Congrats on getting in; I model along with Adrien currently-” Kim was interrupted by an exasperated voice. 

“There you guys are!” A voice called from the stairs, and there Chloé stood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See you guys next week for the next update! Thanks for reading and please leave a comment if you like the chapter!


	10. Night Out

It seemed like every time Marinette saw Chloé, she would take her breath away. She had her extensions curled over her shoulders; she wore a black crop top and a yellow suede skirt, with nude heels that had a single solid strap over her toes. 

Chloé faltered as she got closer upon seeing Marinette sitting on the cool leather couch, and she hesitated before slowly sitting next to Marinette on the edge of the couch. 

“Glad you found us!” Adrien said, grinning as Luka waved a waiter over from next to him.

“Order up!” Luka commanded, Rose opened her mouth but Juleka covered it before she could say anything. 

“Just water and coffee for us,” Juleka said as Rose’s eyes closed and she leaned her head into her girlfriend’s hand. 

“Water for us too,” Max said as his hand was on Kim’s leg. 

Marinette never really drank. Alcohol just wasn’t her thing, but this was a social occasion… “Cranberry Vodka for me,” she shrugged at Juleka “Something simple to start.” 

“A peach schnapps.” Chloé asked the waiter, Marinette noticed that Chloé’s hands were balled into fists, and her knuckles were white. 

“Oh, oh! Gin and tonic!” Adrien grinned, moving his body a bit to the beat of the music. 

“One more brandy for me.” Luka tilted his head back against the seats.The man jotted down everyone’s orders then left with a curt nod, and then there was the awkward silence. 

Marinette wanted to talk to Chloé, let her know her theory of Sabrina and the necklace. But with one proper look at the girl next to her, Marinette paused in her thoughts-- the necklace Chloé was heartbroken over losing sat against the hollow of her neck. 

“You found your necklace?” Marinette leaned over closer to the other woman to get a better look at the object that caused so much heartache. 

“Oh-” Chloé turned and tensed when she saw how close Marinette was, but Marinette was so focused on the necklace that she didn’t see Chloé’s face flush. “Umm,” her voice cracked. “Y-yeah, Sabrina found it for me.” 

Marinette’s heart dropped as the inkling in the back of her head about Sabrina went off like a fire alarm.

“She found it?” Marinette sat up properly, trying not to let her dislike of Sabrina cross over her face. 

“Yeah, apparently she found it when everything was getting packed up--” 

“Well why didn’t she just give it back to you before she left?” Marinette tried to keep the annoyance out of her voice, but by the look on Chloé’s face she didn't do a very good job. Chloé’s eyes searched Marinette’s face before they cast a glance to the table.

There was a tense few moments as Chloé sat in silence and fought with herself. She gave another glance to Marinette that held an air of finality with a mixture of questions-- an answer on the tip of her tongue, but she didn’t say anything more about it. 

“When did James get back?” Chloé asked Adrien instead after a moment, looking at him expectantly. 

“Recently! He must’ve just gotten back this week. Did he show you pictures of his baby?” 

Chloé shook her head and Adrien stood up, pulling her up as they walked towards the stairs. “The baby is adorable! We should visit James sometimes when we’re not all working--” Marinette could hear Adrien say as they got farther and farther away. 

“So… You guy’s used to work at Agreste?” Marinette turned and looked at Juleka and Rose-- Rose was leaning heavily on Juleka’s shoulder, and she had a fairly flushed face. 

“Oooohhhhh yessss~” Rose cooed, staring lovingly up at Juleka. “She’s so pretty, my Jewel.” Rose sighed contentedly. 

“I was a model and Rose was an intern when we first met.” Juleka supplied, patting Rose’s head. “I wasn’t as popular as Chloé or Adrien is; it’s like a hierarchy there if you hadn’t noticed.” 

Marinette nodded, she could’ve guessed by the threat Chloé made to her on her second day. 

“But we all worked together sometimes. Rose was a part of the PR team, so she often accompanied us to photo shoots to document behind the scenes stuff and compile their social media.” 

“It seems like Nathalie does all that now.” Marinette tapped her chin; Juleka nodded sadly. 

“There’s still a handful of people, I’m sure. Nathalie just oversees big photo shoots-- like the one today I heard.” Juleka motioned towards Luka. “When she found out Rose and I were exclusive, well…” 

“We were kaputz!” Rose wailed dramatically, throwing her arm against her head and falling heavily over on the other side of the couch. 

“We talked, got a warning, and then we were fired a few weeks later.” Juleka shrugged. 

“Kagami warned me about not getting too close to the models.” Marinette sighed. 

At this time Max and Kim looked at each other, their hands tightened together. “Same to us, we also got a talk too. Now at work we never see each other and act like we don’t know each other.” 

“Well,” Kim shrugged after giving Max a sly smile, once Max understood his cheeks flushed heavily under his dark complexion and he covered Kim’s mouth with his hands. Marinette laughed at their antics, but sobered up at Juleka’s serious gaze.

Juleka’s soft features steeled as her amber eyes grew cold. “It’s not that they dislike relationships within the workplace, it’s because Gabriel doesn’t like gay people.” 

Marinette grew uncomfortable with that. “He doesn’t?” 

Juleka nodded. “It’s the only reason why Rose and I got fired, I’m sure of it-- and why Max and Kim have to act like each other don’t exist; they don’t discriminate against people who are married at work, even in separate departments. They claim to hire LGBTQ+ groups but how many people do you actually know there that are open about their identity?” Juleka started, her face also flushing from her rising anger. 

“It could be that they also don’t want their models compromised.” Marinette pointed out, thinking once again about Kagami and Adrien’s crush on her. Did Kagami know? Oh god, what if Kagami thought that Marinette had a _crush on Adrien-_

Juleka pulled Marinette from her thoughts.

“Gabriel has even made gross comments in the past about his ideals. I’m glad to be done with the place.” Juleka tied her long hair into a ponytail before folding her arms. Rose seemed to be passed out on the couch next to her. 

“We’ve been looking for new opportunities as well,” Max nodded sadly, “I’ve been thinking about doing my own startup tech company.” 

“And all I am is a pretty face and good muscles.” Kim flexed, “head empty.” Max smacked the man’s arm in a criticizing manner. 

Marinette felt uncomfortable. Was this true?

Adrien and Chloé came back at about the same time the drinks were delivered; Marinette shot hers down quickly, not wanting to think about losing her position with _Agreste_. Marinette tried not to stare at Chloé either as she took delicate sips of her drink. 

Chloé doesn’t look at all like the woman from a few hours ago, lost and stressed about her missing necklace. Sabrina wormed her way back into Marinette’s mind, and she frowned at the idea of that girl having anything to do with Chloé’s necklace from earlier. 

Marinette doesn’t exactly know what her feelings toward Chloé is at this moment, but if there was ever to be more… 

They would be in trouble. 

“Marinette!” Adrien said rather suddenly, interrupting idle chatter from the group after about an hour--at this point now they were a good few drinks in. “Let's go dancing!” Rose was solidly passed out in Juleka’s lap by this point.

Marinette only had two drinks but her head was already swimming. “Huh?” 

“ **DANCING** !” Adrien cupped his hands over his mouth and said loudly. “ **LETS GO**.” 

There were other small groups of people up on the third floor of the club, and they all glanced at the large group of 8. 

Marinette didn’t even know if she could stand, or traverse the stairs, let alone _dance_. 

“I dunno…” she trailed off as she saw Chloé take off her jean jacket (Marinette didn’t even realize she was wearing it) out of the corner of her eye. “Are all of us going to go?” 

“Count us out,” Juleka waved her hand that wasn’t resting securely over Rose’s shoulders. Kim and Max had gone out onto the patio with Luka while he smoked a cigarette. 

“I’ll go!” Adrien stood up, but was swaying on his feet. He had downed his 3rd or 4th drink by now. 

“I will too.” Chloé also stood up, one hand placed on her hip while the other was extended for Marinette to take. Chloé seemed to be doing better than Adrien or Marinette in the alcohol department, though she was only working on her second drink… slowly.

Marinette took the woman’s offered hand, standing up. Her back was sticky with sweat from the leather couch; her face was flushed and body warm from the alcohol; but her hands felt secure in Chloé’s. 

“Good.” The blonde girl gave Marinette a secret smile, Adrien came up and grabbed Marinette’s other hand, leading the poor girl off towards the stairs and ultimately… the dance floor. 

It was… weird wouldn’t be the best word to describe the feeling: unreal? Unreal fit better. 

This whole situation was _unreal_ ; Marinette was getting led down the stairs from a VIP lounge area by two gorgeous, famous models. She had a buzz from her drinks, and the music was getting louder as they descended the stairs; the crowd on the floor looked like one big blob, a mesh of bodies that would soon consume the three of them.

There weren’t quite as _many_ bodies as when they first arrived, and the smell also wasn’t quite as powerful-- but it was still a bit overwhelming. 

The music was loud, and the bass hurt her heart as it messed with the beat; backs to back and fronts to front. Chloé and Adrien found an area of the floor farther away from the middle and the bulk of the crowd as the two attempted to teach Marinette how to dance. 

Adrien danced with them for a little while before he was dragged off elsewhere by his need for the bathroom (or food, Marinette couldn’t actually understand what he said), so now… it was just her and Chloé. 

“Like this, come on.” Chloé grabbed Marinette’s hands and held the girl closer to herself. Chloé was moving her body while one of her other hands came around Marinette’s waist, pulling them together. “Move with me.” 

Marinette’s heart was thrumming, and she worried that if Chloé got any closer that she would be able to hear it. 

“L-like this?” Marinette started moving with Chloé, trying to feel the beat of the music and move along with Chloé’s movements. Marinette’s hands found themselves placed gently on Chloé’s arm and hip, but Marinette’s eyes were focused on Chloé’s.

“Better, watch my feet.” 

Marinette and Chloé moved on the dance floor; Chloé attempted to teach Marinette how to dance while Marinette tried not to step on the other woman’s feet. 

They were close, physically at least. Chloé’s perfume mixed with her sweat and it was all Marinette could smell-- definitely better than any of the other perfume, cologne or sweat from the other patrons. 

Marinette was sweating too, but even with all the dancing and the heat from everyone else-- Marinette wanted Chloé closer, _craved_ her to be closer. 

There was a pull Marinette had toward Chloé, _something_ that drew her attention-- it certainly wasn’t her sparkling personality. Though even with the jaded front Chloé put up there were moments like this, where Chloé was gentle and didn’t have to try so hard to be… perfect.

As far as Marinette was concerned, it was just the two of them and too loud of music with flashing lights. There were even some looks Chloé gave her, like this one when they were washed in pink light, that stole her breath away and made her heart stutter in her chest.

A few more drinks between the two of them, some more dancing, and even some more lingering touches.

This… these were the little reasons why Marinette thought that they could be something more. 

That, and the fact that the next morning Marinette woke up with a splitting headache in a room she didn’t recognize that smelled too much entirely like the perfume Chloé always wore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reminder that Batberryboo did the cover art for the story! She's located on tumblr and twitter. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! See you in two weeks!


	11. Morning After

“Where am I?” Marinette groaned, mascara caked under her eyes and her hair a rat's nest. She didn’t recognize anything in the room; not the cream sheets or flow-y drapes over the windows, or the closet-- but the jean jacket that was laid on top of a vanity she _did_ recognize. 

The reason why the room smelled like Chloé’s perfume was _because this was Chloé’s room._

Marinette paused and looked around the room slower now. There was a lack of a body next to her-- in fact it seemed like only she slept in the bed. Marinette sighed in relief, not sure her heart would be able to take Chloé sleeping next to her. 

_Ok Marinette, think._ _What happened last night?_ Marinette couldn’t remember much after her and Chloé had been dancing for however long-- Marinette remembered not being able to climb the stairs properly, Chloé also having issues, and then…?

Marinette felt like she had question marks floating above her head at the entire situation, and with her pounding headache and full bladder she could guess that she drank. A lot. 

Marinette took a quick glance around the room but didn’t see an immediate bathroom. Everything was so… white. There was hardly any color except for chrome, black, and golden accents. All of the color lived in Chloé’s closet. 

Her room was tidy, with sheer curtains that covered the window and blew gently in the morning breeze. 

Marinette felt dirty, and grimy, and wondered if she should offer to wash Chloé’s sheets. Would Chloé let her shower?

Marinette slowly slid out of the queen bed, expecting cold wooden floors but plush carpet met her bare feet. She was wearing… something. An over sized band t-shirt it looked like, but she didn’t recognize the logo. Her clothes from last night were folded gently on the chair in the corner of the room. 

Marinette’s face burned as she expected Chloé to have been the one to help her change, and she wondered how much food to make to apologize. 

The painful twist of her bladder made her focus on one task at a time, and Marinette slowly cracked the door to peer out into an open living space. Everything was cream or white with small colored accents like throw pillows, pictures, or colored ropes holding her curtains together. Marinette saw a lump of blankets on the couch and an obvious bed on the floor where a tuft of blonde hair was sticking out from under the covers. Carefully, she stepped out of the bedroom and saw another door on the other side of the TV that sat against the wall. 

She was careful to step over the sleeping body of Chloé, and she stood in front of the bathroom door. The light was on along with the bathroom fan, which was curious. 

As a courtesy she knocked gently, and waited a moment. With no response Marinette grabbed the bathroom door, only for it to open out of her grip. 

Two sets of surprised blue eyes stared at each other, Marinette and Chloé’s. Chloé’s short hair was slicked back with water droplets falling onto her bare shoulders, and she had a towel wrapped around her torso; her face was clean from the makeup of last night, and her skin seemed to glow from the moisture and the sunlight streaming in. 

“Good morning,” Marinette said first, gulping. Chloé blinked a few times, clearing her head apparently as she stepped to the side of the bathroom. 

“Good morning…” She trailed off, clenching the towel tighter to herself, she stepped around Marinette so the bathroom was clear. “I hope you slept well?” 

Marinette nodded, the heat of the bathroom washing over her face and helping her wake up more. 

“I did, thank you for letting me use your bed. If I had been more of myself I would’ve insisted on taking the couch.” Marinette blushed, looking down at her bare feet. “Though, thank you for taking care of me last night.” 

Chloé tried not to feel uncomfortable, and usually if she was naked (or nearly naked) in front of others she wouldn’t feel shy or awkward-- but standing with only a towel covering herself in front of Marinette made her feel more exposed than she’d been in years. 

Especially when Marinette looked at _her like that_ ; fluttering her eyelashes and her deep blue eyes feeling more like home than Chloé’s experienced for… a long time. 

It was hard not to feel awkward around Marinette when she kept making Chloé _feel_ things. 

“Well, don’t worry about it. I couldn’t leave you to the wolves like that, Adrien helped too-- so it wasn’t _just_ me.” She paused, looking up and down Marinette again. “But if you wanna pay me back I’m up for suggestions.” 

Marinette crossed her arms under her chest but smiled easily, she leaned against the door frame-- causing the band t-shirt to ride a bit higher on her hips, but Marinette didn’t seem to notice. “Deal, I’ll think of something.” 

Marinette paused now, looking a bit worried into the bathroom. “I was hoping I could also take a shower, but I don’t have any extra clothes-- plus you just took a shower.” 

Chloé shifted, feeling the water running down her legs and onto the hardwood floor beneath her feet. “I could loan you _something_ , since your outfit you wore last night isn’t quite functional for regular daytime activities. I’ll just add it to your tab of favors.” She waved her hand dismissively. “Also, I guess you could take a shower. I didn’t take a long one, and there’s extra towels and wash clothes in the cabinet.” 

Marinette peered into the bathroom before nodding. 

“Thanks, I’ll make you food or sweets if you want.” Marinette smiled, and Chloé’s heart thrummed as she felt her pulse in her throat. 

“Oh, so she cooks.” Chloé replied coyly; Marinette leaned in a bit and gave her a smug grin. 

“I do a bit more than that.” With that, Marinette slipped into the bathroom. 

Chloé stood there for another moment as she willed her heart to stop, when she turned she saw Adrien peeking his head out from the pile of blankets, and with messed up hair and a sleepy grin he said to her: “Flirting? At this early hour, Chloé?” 

Chloé’s face flushed and she huffed, marching into her bedroom and slamming the door. She opened the door and peeked her head back out, face still red. 

“It’s 11!” She closed the door again, but that didn’t stop Adrien’s tired chuckles from entering through the walls. 

Her stomach grumbled and she focused on that pain instead of the thumping of her heart or the flush in her cheeks. She moved into her closet, discarding the towel when she was sure her bedroom door wasn’t going to be flying open and thought about what to wear for the day. 

It seems like a jumpsuit kind of day; Chloé brought out a green jumpsuit with a buttoned up front and pockets on the legs, the neckline was squared off with thin straps over the shoulders. The fabric was loose, and ended in a wide hem a few inches above her ankles-- perfect for pairing with nude heels, if she decided to go out today. 

Chloé stared at her extensions and her wigs that were groomed and sat expectantly on a row of shelving of her closet. She touched the end of her short wet hair, wondering if she should bother putting the extensions or wigs on. 

Usually weekends were her relaxing time, she wouldn’t bother if it was just Adrien… but it wasn’t _just_ Adrien. Marinette has seen her without her extensions on, so it shouldn’t be _that_ big of a deal, _right_? 

What was even _with her_ ? Chloé patted her cheeks to get her train of thought back on track. She’s only known Dupain-Cheng for 4 days, so _why does she affect me this much?!_

Chloé wanted to stomp her insecurities down, squash them under her manicured toenails and Louboutin heels. Shower in her success and riches and brag to all of her friends that she didn’t need _anyone_ to be successful. 

_Why couldn’t it have been Adrien_? 

Chloé felt hot and cold all at the same time; frustrated at her indecision to _hate_ Marinette for making her feel so-- so-- so _confused!_ She also couldn’t help but be intrigued as well, though… because _no one_ made Chloé want to be a better person like Marinette did. 

Would she bring just _anyone_ to her private home? No! Of course not! Sabrina has only been to her home, like, three times. Tops. Adrien practically lives there though when he isn’t home for his father to bother him. 

Chloé should’ve just left Marinette at the club to find her own way home, since no one knew where the girl lived. _That's, like, super extra rude though, Chloé._

Chloé thought back to last night, and how… soft Marinette was, when she was drunk. She was so close to Chloé throughout the entire night, having to touch some part of her after they went dancing for however long. 

Chloé’s face nearly glowed red when a startling realization popped up in her head. She really wanted to know what it was like to _kiss_ Marinette. 

Chloé flopped face down in her bed and groaned loudly into the unused pillow-- which was probably a bad idea because all she could smell was Marinette. 

Chloé rolled over and stared angrily up at her ceiling, fists balled at her sides. 

She did _not_ have a silly, stupid crush on _Marinette Dupain-Cheng_. 

“Chloé? Are you done yet? I need to grab some extra clothes.” Adrien knocked on her door, effectively bringing her out of her self induced pity party. 

Chloé got up and opened her bedroom door, glaring up at Adrien. 

“Oooo… bad time?” Adrien rubbed the back of his head, his blonde hair still a mess as it stood up in off angles. Chloé sighed dejectedly and opened the door for him to enter. 

“Can’t you see I’m busy lamenting about how hard my life is?” She fell back again on her bed. Adrien stared at her for a moment before he moved to her dresser, grabbing a clean pair of sweatpants and a new band t-shirt. He stripped himself of his night clothes without bothering to close her door, shimmying into his pants. 

“So, what’s got poor Princess down this time?” Adrien joined her on the other side of the bed, staring up at the ceiling. 

Chloé didn’t want to say anything, not to him about her swimming mind and her back and forth heart. 

“How often are you confused in life?” She asked him instead. 

“Oh, every waking moment it feels like.” Adrien nodded in solidarity from next to her. “The extent of the confusion though is different.” 

“Like… have you ever been confused by a relationship?” Chloé tried to supply. 

Adrien nodded without missing a beat. “Of course; people are weird-- ya know? I mean, I’ve never been confused about us. We’ve been friends since we were babies, practically. My dad though? I’m confused by him constantly.” Adrien got the familiar tightness in his voice when speaking about his relationship with his dad. 

“Isn’t… is there anybody you’re interested in?” Chloé tried not to pry often in Adrien’s life, but he had been single for most of their adult life. He shifted his head away from her when she turned to look at him. 

“Umm yeah, actually.” His voice was quiet, “we work with her. She’s nice, kinda keeps to herself, pretty.” 

Chloé rolled over to stare at him. “Is… it someone I know?” She rested her chin in her hands, Adrien looked back at her before nodding. 

“Yeah, I’d say you’ve met her a few times.” 

Chloé stuck her tongue in her cheek, she was about to say something else but she heard the water in the bathroom shut off. She stood up and went into her closet instead, looking for… something Marinette would be able to wear. 

By the time Chloé had some clothing in her arms Marinette had wrapped herself in a towel. Her hair, when wet, was as black as night, especially when she stood in front of the floor to ceiling windows. 

“I didn’t realize you lived so close to the tower.” Marinette remarked without turning around. Chloé paused as she looked outside, she saw the Eiffel Tower down the street. Chloé looked back at Marinette, still only clad in her towel with wet hair hanging down her back. Her skin was freckled, and her shoulders were red from the hot water. 

“Here’s some clothes you can borrow. I expect them dry cleaned and back.” Chloé tried to sound aloof with her regular air of arrogance as she held the items out. Marinette didn’t seem phased as she smiled gently and took the pile of clothing. 

“I only really needed a shirt.” Marinette joked; Chloé paused though. 

“Would you like to borrow my jacket instead?” At Marinette’s surprised look Chloé stuttered as a blush coated her ears. “S-so you don’t ruin my clothes, that’s it.” 

“Sure, so I don’t ruin your clothes.” 

Chloé turned on her heels and went back into her bedroom, red faced and fingers trembling. Adrien stayed on her bed, looking wistfully up at the ceiling until she came in. 

“You’re mean when you’re trying to flirt.” Adrien commented, Chloé grabbed her jean jacket from last night that was within easy reach, giving Adrien a glare before she also grabbed the pile of Marinette’s clothes that had been folded neatly on the chair. 

“Here, trade.” Chloé said rather forcefully as Marinette handed her back the pile of clothes she initially handed her, and they traded clothes. 

Marinette nodded in gratitude before she made her way back into the bathroom. The two locked eyes again before Marinette closed the door again to get dressed. 

Chloé’s face flamed when an intrusive memory from the night before of trying to help Marinette change flashed itself in her mind. 

Chloé went back into her room, setting the clothes she picked out for Marinette on the chair and laid back down opposite of Adrien, hands folded over her chest as the two stared at the ceiling. 

Chloé tried not to have her heart hammer in her throat when the bathroom door opened again, and Marinette’s footsteps could be heard leading up to the room. 

“Is this a supermodel thing no one told me about in school?” Marinette asked, tying her hair back into low pigtails from spare hair ties that she had on her. 

Somewhere. 

Adrien tilted his head back to look at her from upside down. “I guess so, wanna join?” 

Marinette shrugged, coming and laying down at the edge of the bed so her head was near Chloé’s and Adrien's. “I’m not a supermodel like you two, but I’ll always accept a good lay down to stare at the ceiling.” 

Adrien nodded knowingly. “It does seem to be one of those days.” He winced after a moment. “Hangovers.” 

“Really? I actually feel pretty good after that shower.” Marinette turned to look up at Chloé then. “Thank you, by the way.” 

_For what?_ Chloé wanted to ask, to hear for all the reasons why Marinette would be thanking her. “Don’t mention it.” She said instead, turning to look at Marinette. 

It was a mistake, because the sunlight streaming in the room back lit the girl and made her eyes stand stark against the shadows across her face. Chloé didn’t know how much her heart could take at this rate, and that nagging voice in the back of her head wondered again what it would be like to… kiss her. 

The feeling was mutual, as Marinette’s breath had been stolen away as the sunlight hit Chloé’s eyes and lit them up like sapphires, they shone like jewels and Marinette wanted to be lost in them forever (if she was allowed). 

Adrien groaned as he sat up, breaking whatever spell had come over the both of them and making Chloé look away as she sat up as well. Marinette was slower to sit up, but eventually she followed. 

“Is it my turn for the shower?” Adrien scratched at his head, cringing as some of it was still gelled in awkward angles from sleeping on it. “I could really use it.” 

“If you’re going to take a shower, I’ll go look for breakfast.” Marinette offered, standing up. Chloé almost looked sad once Marinette had stood up, but Marinette didn’t notice. “I know a good cafe near here that has great pastries and breakfast items. I’ll grab us some stuff and coffee.” 

Adrien looked expectantly at Chloé, who stood up as well once she caught Adrien’s eye. 

“Oh-- um, Adrikins. You can take a shower. Marinette, I’ll go with you to find… breakfast…” Chloé usually didn’t eat breakfast, but she wasn’t exactly ready to face the silence of being alone. 

Marinette seemed surprised at the offer, but smiled nonetheless. “I guess four hands for carrying is better than two.” 

“It’s settled then!” Adrien marched into the bathroom, and Marinette and Chloé were left alone. 

* * *

Was this _really_ a good idea? Chloé and Marinette had walked down the streets of Paris towards the Eiffel Tower before crossing a few streets. They had been walking for about 10 minutes now and Chloé was curious if her call for nude heels was the right call. 

She didn’t even eat sweets, usually. Or breakfast. 

She adjusted her sunglasses, purse swinging at her hip from across her body as her hands were in her long black coat’s pockets. 

Chloé refused to go out without at least some mascara on, and Marinette had gotten rid of her pigtails and did a top knot with half of her hair, leaving the bottom half loose so it could dry and lay across her shoulders naturally. 

She was gorgeous, even though she had dressed in her clothes from last night-- but the jean jacket Chloé loaned her made the outfit even more complete. 

“Are we almost there, _Dupain-Cheng_?” Chloé groaned for the second time in five minutes. They had only been walking for ten. Marinette rolled her eyes as she took a step closer to Chloé and grabbed her arm. 

“Come on, _Bourgeois._ Have some patience, this is the best cafe in all of Paris.” 

Chloé scoffed at that, pulling her sunglasses down to look at Marinette. “Right, bold claims coming from _you_.”

Marinette fake gasped, hand over chest. “You would call me a liar?” 

“I would call you _something_.” Chloé scoffed. Marinette snickered as she continued to lead them. 

“We’re almost there, _Princess_.” Marinette said teasingly, using the name Adrien used for Chloé. The blonde girl only looked off to the side, hiding the obvious blush. 

Marinette grinned. “Look, it’s right over there.” Marinette pointed out to the patisserie that sat at the edge of a building, in front of the Eiffel tower. 

Chloé’s stomach grumbled at the thought of food. “I’m on a diet.” 

Marinette tapped her chin in thought, “they have a pretty diverse menu. I’m sure there’s something for you.” 

When Marinette entered she took notice of the few available tables, and Alya sitting in the corner with Sabine. 

Alya was about to open her mouth to yell but Marinette brought a finger up to her lips, gesturing to the blonde girl right behind her. 

“It’s,” Chloé started as she brought her sunglasses up and perched them on her head, looking around at the tiled floors, hanging plants, and warm atmosphere with iron and wood tables and comfortable seating. “... quaint.” 

“It’s charming.” Marinette argued. “Come on, Tom is the best baker in the city. His dad was a bread master, isn’t that cool?” 

Chloé looked after Marinette with a raised eyebrow, “you seem to know a lot about this place.” 

Marinette shrugged. “I like it here, I’m probably their most well known patron. I do a lot of my sketching and designing here, too.” 

Marinette watched as Alya and her mom whispered to each other, looking between Marinette and Chloé. 

It was another moment that seemed surreal to Marinette; here she was in her family’s bakery with a woman she admired. 

By the time Marinette and Chloé had left with a bag of scones and other small sweets and a tray of coffee, Marinette had given her mom and Alya a wink. 

Chloé refused to talk to her on the way back as Marinette had pushed her to eat a blueberry scone because _there’s fruit in it Chloé, it’s totally healthy._

And of course it was delicious, but Chloé didn’t want to admit that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, some good food. 
> 
> Adrien is a sweet, sweet boy :)
> 
> See you guys in two weeks!


	12. Ugh, Mondays

Not _only_ was it Monday, but Chloé didn’t answer _any_ of her texts, emails, or _calls!_ In her worry, Sabrina had driven to the neighborhood of Chloé’s apartment and waited down the street so she could watch the building. 

To her annoyance she saw Adrien’s car parked on the street, and had half a mind to call a tow truck for it just to enjoy the sight of it being dragged away-- but she waited instead. She told herself she was only going to wait until noon before she would march and knock on Chloé’s door. 

Thankfully right before she was getting out of her white sedan two people emerged from the apartment building; an asian woman dressed in what Sabrina was going to classify as ‘tasteless and provocative,’ with chunky black heels and a black corset. But the jean jacket on the woman’s shoulders and the short haired blonde in a green jumpsuit and large sunglasses walking next to her were unmistakable. 

Sabrina felt ice run through her veins followed quickly by hot rage. 

Chloé wasn’t answering her but could hang out with some second class _nobody_?! Sabrina recognized the girl with black hair. She was the over eager intern or whatever she met yesterday. 

Disgusting. Sabrina could feel her lip curl up as she sat, gripping her steering wheel as she watched the two walk down the street, they were obviously talking and laughing about _something_. 

Sabrina’s blood boiled and she peeled out of her parked position rather suddenly, fishtailing as her wheels gripped the asphalt and launched her forward-- in her satisfaction she scraped against Adrien’s car, leaving behind some nice white paint on his shiny black car. 

But _now, today_ was Monday. And Sabrina had her car in the shop to fix the paint so she wouldn’t be tied to the damage on Adrien’s car, so she sat outside the Agreste fashion building in a cafe across the street. A blue scarf covered her red hair and she had large glasses to hide most of her face, she wore a light beige coat as she glared at the building. 

She didn’t have access to the floors of the building on certain days of the week, as per her personal agreement with Agreste as Chloé had a contract with them. One of them happened to be Mondays. 

Sabrina personally thought it was ridiculous.

But! She couldn’t let her sweet Chloé, _her_ beautiful and talented _Chloé_ , be tainted by some hand me down, fast fashion, idea stealing hussy _nobody._

Sabrina paused as she reached towards her coffee cup, a slow grin spreading across her face as she drummed her fingers along the table. She stared through her glasses up at the tall building, ideas churning in her mind. 

Inside Agreste Marinette was busy at work with Caline. Caline was impressed with Marinette’s quick thinking and honesty at the photo shoot over the weekend, so she had Marinette work directly with her that day. Wherever Caline went Marinette was encouraged to follow, while _working_. Which meant that Marinette got to see the first look at the new designs that Gabriel wanted to start working on.

It was thrilling, especially since apparently these first look designs had quite a few hands in them. And then there was Gabriel Agreste himself… well, more like a screen with him on it. Marinette had wondered why she never saw him around the building, well apparently he had turned into a hermit. 

A well dressed hermit. 

Adrien was present, probably as a professional model with input, and Caline and Marinette were there, alongside Nathalie and Kagami. 

Adrien waved at her when the two of them entered, but he was sitting at one of the first seats near the head of the table. Nathalie and Kagami sat opposite of him while Caline and Marinette sat a bit further down. 

A folder had been placed towards the center, pieces of paper escaping out of it. 

“Thank you for coming,” Gabriel’s voice echoed from the tablet stationed on a moving robot at the head of the table. 

“As some of you are aware I am not going with the status quo this fashion season-- I’m introducing more bridal gowns into my collection this year along with the summer street line focusing more on the working class instead of my usual vision. I’m wanting to combine multiple aspects of each world. As usual, the designs you see here are the first mock ups of my ideas.” 

Caline opened the folder and took two designs out, Adrien had grabbed one, along with Nathalie and Kagami. 

“What… are we supposed to be doing?” Marinette leaned over and whispered to Caline. The older woman smiled kindly as she took one of the red pens from next to them and uncapped it. 

“ _We_ and Adrien, are making small design alterations to the pictures here. Or suggesting alternate patterns that our textile department may be able to make, or fabric choices as well.” 

Marinette looked at the slim dress with a flared out bottom and gave a slight frown, she knew how she would alter the design but… this was _Gabriel Agreste_! 

She would gather the flared out bottom near the feet and pin one side for a ruching effect and an angled bottom, resulting in a more practical wear for the dress as it wouldn’t get caught under foot as easily. 

And also add a big sun hat, that would make it look rather elegant, personally. 

She looked at Caline and the bullet points she made on the side detailing what she would change or her recommendations for materials. Adrien a bit further away she could see he was adding patterns or creases to the actual design themselves. 

Marinette uncapped her own red pen and then frowned. She looked around before digging in her purse hanging at her side to bring out a small handful of all different colored pens. 

She set to work after a moment of organizing them on the table top, grabbing her black pen and relining the bottom of the dress. 

She worked quickly and deftly, suggesting that the top material of the dress is velvet while the shift underneath is cotton, offering warmth in colder months but still breath ability in warmer times without it ruining the material. Adding small beading near the ruffles of her ruching. She turned an elegant evening gown into an everyday gown that a modern woman would be able to wear and still feel sexy without giving up the elegance of the style, attaching a belt around the middle underneath of where the breasts would sit. She removed the long sleeves and low neckline and instead made it sleeveless with thick straps and a squared neckline. 

Something that could be worn every time of the year. 

She also made it royal blue instead of an olive green. Though the olive green still looked very nice; with the velvet angle that Marinette put on it, it wouldn't look quite right. 

She had gotten done shortly after Caline, sitting patiently while Kagami and Nathalie typed on their laptops while looking over their designs. Adrien was balancing his pen on pursed lips and leaning back in his chair. 

“You changed a large amount of that design,” Caline acknowledged, looking it over. “You’re very forward, and I must say I approve of the changes you made while keeping his original intention in mind but making it more functional.” Caline nodded her approval before settling back in her seat. 

“Let’s see what he thinks of it.” 

“Wait, he’s going to see it?” Marinette’s heart thumped in her chest.

“Yes, of course. He approves any changes to his designs. This is a multiple step process usually; Nathalie and Kagami scour news sites and our competitors to make sure they haven’t announced anything similar so we don’t run into any intellectual property trouble; I usually alter the designs to match the season better, or what would be easiest for my team to make quickly and alter as needed; Adrien offers what would be comfortable to wear for lengths of time or how the clothing should fit on a model.” 

“Then… why am I here?” She didn’t know if she wanted the answer. But Caline smiled gently, giving the girl a reassuring hand on top of hers. 

“You’re here to offer a new perspective, as most of our clothing is made for people your age.” 

* * *

Chloé had sworn she saw Sabrina sitting over at the cafe across the street when she passed by one of the windows towards the bottom floors where call centers and general office work was. Article workers, or something like that. 

Though now that she stood outside looking around for her manager, she wondered why she even bothered. Sabrina had been super clingy as of late, and the 30 missed texts, 15 emails, and 10 voice messages of Sabrina wailing that Chloé wasn’t answering her back made the blonde want to hide under a rock and pitch her phone in the river. 

Forever. 

Chloé sighed, placing her hands on her hips and tapping her foot for a moment before she decided to turn around and head back inside, huffing. 

She was moving to enter farther in the building towards the security checkpoint when she saw the very same woman she had been looking for at the front desk and talking to one of the girls that Chloé didn’t know. 

Although Chloé didn’t know a lot of the people who worked at the company. She had been a model for them for years, but only recently picked up her more serious contract (which restricted her ability to model for other companies). She had to get gigs outside of Agreste approved through Sabrina and then through Nathalie to make sure there wasn’t any risk of company confidentiality or something stupid like that. 

Chloé would usually go over and just tell that bratty secretary to buzz off and let Sabrina through… but this time Chloé hesitated, instead she took a few steps back and halfway hid herself behind one of the big plants that was basically just a tree in the lobby and peeked out to watch them. 

Sabrina had really pissed her off, so watching her struggle with the secretary was worth a watch-- but their behaviors were _different_.

Instead of the loud and demanding presence that Chloé was accustomed to from Sabrina --she was whispering this time to the girl with the straight bangs and reddish-brown hair. Sabrina had brought out her phone and showed the girl a picture. The secretary girl gasped, holding her hand over her mouth before she looked back up at Sabrina and whispered something angrily. 

Whatever they were talking about didn’t seem that interesting, and Chloé still didn’t want to see Sabrina anyways. 

Chloé turned to walk away back towards the elevators, vaguely wondering when Sabrina got so buddy-buddy with that girl. 

* * *

_“Impressive.”_ Marinette breathed, still dazed from the meeting. “He, _Gabriel Agreste_ , called my alterations _impressive!_ ” Marinette squealed, kicking her legs with joy as Adrien laughed from next to her. 

“ _I_ was impressed, I like the subtle beading to add that little bit of… _extra._ ” Adrien waved his hands dismissively. “My brain isn’t working today, there’s a word but I can’t think of it.” 

Marinette didn’t pay a mind to him, looking at the copy of her design. 

_Impressive._

“I could die happy right now.” Marinette sighed, leaning heavily against the desk that had been designated as her work area near the large windows that gazed over the city. 

“I’m glad one of us can.” Adrien laughed before sighing heavily. “It was awkward during that meeting, it usually is once Kagami joins.” 

“Why?” Marinette tilted her head at him curiously, Adrien rubbed the back of his neck before he stubbornly shoved his hands in his pockets. 

“Haven’t you _seen_ her?” 

Marinette raised her eyebrow. 

“She’s so beautiful and so dutiful and so detail orientated in her work… I could watch her work for hours.” He sighed, looking out over the city and the rolling clouds. 

“Why don’t you go support her when she goes fencing?” Marinette crossed her arms. 

“I don’t know when she goes-- and isn’t that weird?” 

She shrugged, “well, what if I ask to go or have her teach me and then you show up?” 

Adrien stared at her in bewilderment. 

“You would do that?” 

Marinette refused the urge to shrug again but she smiled and nodded instead. “Yeah, I’ve always kind of wanted to learn how to fence anyways.” 

Adrien swooped in and gave her a big hug, jumping up and down with her in his arms. 

“O-Oh Kaaays.” Marinette said through giggles and the breath being knocked out of her. 

Chloé stood off to the side after entering the alterations department, arms crossed but a small smile playing on her lips as she watched the two of them. Though her smile faded after a moment when she thought about how Adrien hadn’t told her whom he liked that they worked with. 

It took the two of them a moment to notice Chloé, but Adrien had put Marinette down and coughed into his closed fist. 

“Hey Chlos,” Adrien greeted. Marinette fixed her top that had gotten out of place and also smiled largely over at Chloé. 

“Chloé! Gabriel Agreste said one of _my_ designs was _impressive_! Can you believe that?” Marinette held her face in her hands, a big smile plastered on her face. 

“I’m on cloud nine.” 

Chloé had approached with her arms crossed firmly over her chest, an eyebrow raised at the two. Adrien seemed to be a bit embarrassed, but Marinette’s head space was elsewhere.

* * *

“I just can’t believe that _Adrien_ would pay attention to _her,_ and not _me!”_ Lila huffed with her arms crossed, her and Sabrina were standing outside the building and smoking cigarettes together. 

“Oh, I know!” Sabrina took a drag off of hers and then blew it out. “That’s why I came straight to you about it. I thought you should know.” 

Lila nodded appreciatively, holding the smoke in before exhaling it out through her nose. 

“I just can’t believe that _my Adrien_ would rather spend his time with some pitiful, talentless hack.” Lila spit at the ground. 

“If you can get me any dirt on that girl-- what was her name again?” 

“ _Marinette_.” Lila said with disgust as she took another drag from her cigarette. Sabrina nodded. 

“If you can get me any dirt on her or cause any trouble, I’ll work on taking Chloé out of the picture.” 

Lila thought about it for a moment, finger tapping on her chin. 

Sabrina hid her smile as she took another drag off of her cigarette as well, letting the smoke out slowly between her clenched teeth. 

Chloé would be _hers._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sabrina what are you up to? :T
> 
> Thanks a ton for reading! See you in two weeks!


	13. All the Things She Said

The week flew by… in fact, all of them did. With Gabriel unveiling new designs for the summer season, Caline was putting Marinette and their team through the wringer. 

Aside from alterations, Marinette didn’t have any time to see Chloé or Adrien. Adrien had taken to spending lunch with her, and by extension so did Chloé. It was always fun to talk to them, but…

Chloé had slowly stopped coming by for Marinette’s lunch break, and one time when Marinette had run to the cafe across the street for some food she had seen Chloé sitting and having a cigarette with Lila. 

_Lila,_ of all people. 

“Chloé!” Marinette called out cheerfully as she was walking back towards the building. 

Chloé turned her head and gave a soft wave, Lila peeked out from the other side of the blonde girl and gave Marinette a death glare. Lila grabbed Chloé’s hand to turn her attention. 

Marinette stopped walking and stared at the two of them, curious as to what they were talking about. 

Also curious about what she did to deserve such treatment from Lila. 

The interaction would’ve bothered Marinette more if it wasn’t for the fact that she had been incredibly busy making clothing for an up-and-coming runway show that Gabriel announced for two months away. 

_Two months!_

That may seem like a lot of time, but as Marinette was discovering (about 3 weeks in) that it was barely any time at all. 

Her back ached from sitting in front of the sewing machine, having been personally presented the task of making Adrien’s outfit, which was going to be the staple piece of the entire show. 

Initially she had felt elated by the honor, presented by Caline and Gabriel (tablet mode). Now, though, she felt the exhaustion of the expectations and burdens placed on her shoulders. 

She was very happy a few weeks ago when she was just making minor alterations to already made pieces… but this is what her internship is for. 

This is what she wanted to do! Marinette wiped the sweat off of her brow and went back to work, blinking a few times to adjust her eyes back into concentrating on such a small point. 

“Marinette.” Came the soft and stoic voice of Kagami, finally breaking through her thundering thoughts and the monotonous hum of the sewing machine’s motor. 

“Oh,” Marinette straightened her back and winced as she leaned against the back of her chair. “Hey Kagami, what’s up?” 

Kagami had her purse around her shoulder and a duffel bag in her other hand. 

“Would you like to accompany me to fencing tonight? I had heard that you were interested. “

Marinette blinked, her mind saying **ERROR: 404; APPLICATION:MARINETTE.EXE** **NOT FOUND**.

“Marinette?” Kagami prompted, head tilting to the side. 

“Oh, sorry.” Marinette shook her head, “yes I would love to accompany you.” 

“Great,” Kagami smiled, probably one of the first Marinette has ever seen from the woman. Kagami turned, already walking away. “I will meet you outside.” 

Marinette looked at her work on her table, and then sighed as she realized she was going to have to take out the stitches she had just put in, and set out to complete that before storing the garment safely in a locked container under her desk. 

On her way out she told Caline goodnight, who was also completing a late night as she had multiple outfits to complete as well. Marinette pulled out her cell phone and checked what emails and messages had piled up throughout the day before someone touched her shoulder gently right in front of the elevator. 

“Hey,” Adrien tried not to laugh as Marinette nearly jumped out of her skin. 

“Don’t _do that_.” She hissed, holding her phone tightly against her chest. Adrien tilted his head and lifted his eyebrow. “Sorry, just a long day.” She sighed, looking out at the low sun on the horizon as she rubbed the arm that he had touched the shoulder of. 

Adrien paused, holding his hand out for her. “Need a hug?” 

Marinette blinked at his outstretched hand and then up at his face. 

“A hug?” She couldn’t remember the last time she had a hug, actually. “No, that’s ok. I’m going with Kagami to fencing tonight and I shouldn’t keep her waiting.” 

Adrien perked up, “can I come with?” 

“Oh, right.” Marinette had honestly forgotten about Adrien wanting any excuse to spend more time with Kagami. “I don’t have any issues with it personally.” She shrugged as they started walking again towards the elevator. 

“Have you seen Chlos recently?” Adrien asked once they were securely in the elevator alone, he watched the numbers go down while Marinette counted the black streaks in the white marble flooring. 

“No, not for a few days. Last I saw her she was smoking with Lila.” Marinette had a bitter taste in her mouth from the experience. 

Adrien had his arms crossed as he tapped his foot, “She’s been hanging out with Lila a lot recently, which concerns me. Chloé didn’t even know who Lila was just a few weeks ago.” 

Marinette gave a half-hearted shrug at that, she felt extremely drained and was actually really looking forward to learning to poke someone with a sharp instrument. 

But surprisingly Chloé was waiting in the main lobby, arms crossed over her chest and her foot tapping as well. Marinette couldn’t help the small smirk as she wondered who started the habit first. 

Probably Chloé. 

“Ugh, there you are!” She stomped up to them but notably didn’t meet Marinette’s eyes. “I’ve been _waiting_ for _ever_ for you, Adrikins!” 

Adrien seemed a bit taken aback at this, and Marinette only knew why since Adrien had waited around for her to be done with work every night for the last two weeks and Chloé hadn’t waited around for them once. 

She could also see that the annoyance on his face melted away as Chloé stood in front of him with hands on her hips and her bottom lip stubbornly jutted out. 

“Well, I’m here now.” He put his hands in his pants pockets as the two of them exited the elevator. Marinette looked between the two blondes and their weird staring contest that was going on between them, and she slowly inched her way around them. 

“Where are _you_ going, _Dupain-Cheng_?” Chloé tried to sound crass with her hands on her hips, but it was a poor presentation. Chloé didn’t have the proper posture of someone who was angry and entitled at the world, she looked just as exhausted as Marinette felt. 

“Kagami and I are going fencing, Adrien is coming along.” Marinette smiled as she approached Chloé. “You should come with, hang out with your friends for once.” 

Marinette didn’t know what was going on with Chloé, or why she was hanging out with Lila suddenly-- and even though Marinette was busy, she missed Chloé. 

And Chloé's hesitance at the offer made Marinette believe that Chloé missed her, too. Adrien was grinning from next to her, smiling largely and nodding. 

Marinette was tired and emboldened, and she grabbed the other girl’s hand. 

“Come with.” It wasn’t a question.

Chloé searched Marinette’s eyes, looking down at the black haired woman with a harsh gaze that slowly melted off her features “...Ok.” 

“Ok.” Marinette nodded slowly, giving Chloé’s hand a small squeeze before letting it go. 

Kagami looked surprised as Marinette walked out with Adrien and Chloé, and the three of them continued towards her. 

“Marinette, this is a surprise.” Kagami held her bag tight in front of her. 

“I apologize, they were interested in fencing as well and wanted to watch.” Marinette gestured to the two models; Adrien blushed fiercely as he smiled awkwardly and waved stiffly at Kagami. Chloé had her arms crossed and tried to smile at Kagami, but her brashness from earlier hadn’t completely melted away. 

“I see.” Kagami’s facial expression hadn’t changed much, but she slung her bag over her shoulder effortlessly and led the way down the street. 

* * *

Adrien _really_ wanted to talk to Chloé about what had crawled up in her wig over the last couple weeks, but he didn’t think watching the girl he had a crush on stab Marinette repeatedly was a good time to bring that conversation up. 

Meanwhile Chloé tried to understand what was going on, but without any luck. She wanted to talk to Adrien, to clear up the air with him-- he wasn’t in love with Marientte, right? He wasn’t replacing her with Marinette? 

When Chloé looked over to him to talk to him, to ask if they could hang out-- just them sometime, his green eyes were completely glued to the two girls on the mat. Chloé’s heart twisted in her chest at the thought that he was completely head over heels for Marinette. 

That wasn’t the only reason why Chloé’s heart twisted in her chest, though. Kagami and Marinette took a break, and Marinette took her helmet off and took her hair out of the low bun she put it in. 

Her black hair unfurled down her back, and sweat beaded from her brows and dripped off her chin. 

Chloé tried to hide the blush that coated her cheeks, but Adrien wasn’t paying attention anyways as Kagami had also removed her helmet. 

* * *

Chloé was… _confused_ . About her own feelings and how _suddenly_ they struck her in the gut when it comes to Marinette. _Anything_ Marinette. 

When Chloé first saw her she was struck by the actual _ocean_ staring back up at her; perfect little spheres that held the depths and the secrets of the ocean, along with the color and the spark of life that only the ocean could hold. It only got worse from there at the give and take that Chloé had implemented between the two of them. 

Marinette was so _fierce_ , and so quick to defend herself when she felt like she had been wronged-- it was admirable, and something so genuine that Chloé couldn’t help but be intrigued by the woman. What was it like to be adored by people who actually cared about you, and not just what you could offer them? 

She couldn’t exactly use Adrien as an example, as he was in the exact same boat she was. 

Which was another thing that Chloé was confused about-- why couldn’t it have been Adrien?

Maybe when they were teenagers with only each other to hold onto in the uncertainty of their hectic worlds, but there was never anything… there. 

Chloé loved him, so deeply and absolutely and undoubtedly did she love him, but as family. 

And as a family member she wouldn’t compete with him over the same girl, even if it was Marinette. 

Marinette who was so absolutely opposite of Chloé herself and so perfect for Adrien; Marinette who wrinkled her nose when she laughed, and had a dimple on her right side that was evident when she smiled and laughed so hard. 

Marinette, who had a terrible habit of chewing on her lips when she was concentrating so intently on her designs and work that Chloé wanted to make her take a stupid break and kiss the wrinkles that set between her eyebrows. 

Honestly that was why she had been distancing herself between them over the last few weeks-- she had seen how comfortable the two of them were around each other during their lunch hours, so one afternoon when Chloé had gone out for a cigarette Lila had caught her. 

They started chatting, and Lila started gossiping (as Lila does). 

Then something Lila had said caught Chloé’s attention. _“I’ve got a picture of Adrien’s arm around Marinette’s shoulders from that photoshoot a few weeks ago.”_

She knew that she shouldn’t give someone like Lila an inch, but Lila was in the unique position of being a fly on the wall and gathering passive information. 

So… Chloé started hanging out with Lila more, trying to confirm what she suspected but that Adrien just wouldn’t talk to her about it. 

His secret relationship with Marinette. 

Also, Sabrina has been breathing down Chloé’s neck recently, especially about her diet because Sabrina always made sure that Chloé knew how much she cared about her well being. 

Chloé was snapped out of her musings when Marinette and Kagami exited the locker room, both with flushed faces. Marinette had the type of smile on her face that showed off her dimple. 

“I’m going to offer to take Kagami home, and then I’ll come over… ok?” Adrien spoke to her. 

Chloé looked at Adrien curiously, so… how was _she_ getting home? 

Marinette nodded to Kagami, “It is rather late for the buses going to that side of town, and he’s a good driver.” Chloé could hear Marinette tell the other girl. 

Adrien and Kagami left after another moment, a little spring in Adrien’s step as he chatted excitedly with Kagami while Marinette had come up to Chloé. 

“Hey, ever taken the city bus?” Marinette grinned down at Chloé as she sat on a bench, Chloé crossed her arms and upturned her nose. 

“No! That’s _gross_.” 

Marinette rolled her eyes before holding out her hand for Chloé to take to stand up. 

“Well, be a filthy commoner for 20 minutes and let me walk you home.” Chloé looked at Marinette’s hand with distrust, but she didn’t immediately smell sweat so… 

“Ugh, fine. I guess.” She groaned, grabbing Marinette’s hand and trying not to think as to why Adrien took Kagami home and not his _girlfriend_. 

Maybe he thought that Chloé needed some girl time? Have his two best gals talk and be friends so they could be one big happy family? 

Yeah, that was probably just it. Ugh, sneaky Adrien. 

Even though Chloé and Marinette walked down the street to the nearest bus stop still holding hands. 

Marinette’s hands were still warm from fencing, she had gentle callouses along her palms and at the tips of her fingers-- but they were still so soft. Chloé wondered how securely their hands would fit together, but didn’t intertwine their fingers as they continued to walk down the street. 

She really, _really_ wanted to. 

Sabrina’s words came back to mind rather suddenly: “ _You can’t trust anyone but me, Chloé. I’m the only one who truly cares about your well being and your success.”_

Was that… true? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Self Doubt is something that a lot of people struggle with constantly.


	14. En-Garde

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone.
> 
> I'm so sorry that it's taking me so long to post, and I'm even more sorry that the chapter is nowhere near finished. 
> 
> Unfortunately 2020 has given me some of the worst punches over the last few weeks, and my immediate world is literally on fire. Please forgive such the late update, and please forgive me that I have to take a break from this story for an undetermined amount of time. I'm hoping I will be posting again in October. 
> 
> I wanted to be done or almost done with the story in October, now my deadline is Christmas. 
> 
> Thank you all for being so supportive of this story, it's really made me happy.

Marinette didn’t have time to dwell on the weirdness that has been following Chloé for however long she’s been… like _this._ _This_ being her ignoring Marinette and Adrien, having a snooty attitude and lifting her head in the air-- but that was only when other people were around. 

When it was just the three of them, Chloé would act like nothing had happened. Like she hasn’t been a brat to them for weeks now and hugs Adrien and touches Marinette’s hand when they’re hanging out together. 

But today Marinette didn’t have the chance to not acknowledge Chloé like the blonde woman has been doing to her-- Marinette needed to do the first fitting, and she was the one specifically working on Chloé’s outfit. 

Which was her own design, and she tried not to have her heart skip a beat in her chest whenever Chloé came in to get it fitted. But with only a solid week and a few days before the fashion show, Marinette had focused entirely on this outfit and helping some of the others in the alterations department with their work. 

Caline appreciated the initiative that Marinette took to help her fellow workers on such a big project, and even worked on one of the most important pieces of the whole ensemble. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I do post again I'll do a double update so you guys will be able to have a two for one. 
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> and again I'm sorry. 
> 
> \- 8C


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